Confirmation of Fed policy, governors

Typically, short workweek after a holiday simply means you have to squeeze more into the remaining days. That seemed to be the case with the Federal Reserve, as no less than eight members of the Federal Open Market Committee spoke (six on Thursday alone). Nothing new came out of the various speeches—unsurprising considering the raft of critical economic data arriving next week (including the Consumer Price Index). 

But some changes did occur in Washington, D.C., as the Senate confirmed economist Adriana Kugler as a governor and promoted governor Philip Jefferson to the post of vice chair. Vice chair is titularly the No. 2 position at the Fed, but that likely won’t mean much in terms of monetary policy in the short term because he has voted for every hike so far. And new members of the board of governors usually don’t rock the boat. In any case, Chair Jerome Powell probably will brook no dissent in the coming corners as he wants the Fed's message to the markets to be as clear as possible as it is nearing (we think) the end of the tightening cycle.