The Fedspeak is quiet today, but former Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester is on CNBC (she is newly retired from the Fed)

  • Jobs work is going to be an important piece of the puzzle
  • There will be a discussion on whether they want to start with a 25 or 50 basis point cut
  • Fed will likely indicate what is the path on rate cuts going forward
  • Jobs market has been moderating from a quite tight condition
  • Powell said atJackson Hole that he would not want to go much weaker than the where they are now on employment
  • The Fed wants a strong labor market. Having a strong jobs report is a good thing for the committee.
  • Inflation has come down and it's time to start to bring the policy right down.
  • The Fed does look at financial conditions and part of that is what goes on in the equity market, but it is just a piece of the financial conditions.
  • Politics does not enter the room
  • The Fed is focused on the dual mandates
  • The Fed will be criticized either way on what they do. They have to be focused on their mandate.

Makes sense.

The US jobs report will be released on Friday with expectations of NFP at around 165K and the unemployment rate dipping to 4.2% from 4.3%.

In premarket trading

  • Dow industrial average, -222 points
  • S&P index -30 points
  • NASDAQ index -124 points