Fed's Williams Sees No Urgency To Cut Rates Again, Says November CPI Was 'Distorted' Downward Due To Technical Factors: Report

During an interview with CNBC, Williams said that the recent employment and inflation data did little to change his monetary policy outlook.

• Williams stated that the cuts so far have positioned the Fed really well.
• He cited the lack of data collection in October and the first half of November as the reason behind the distortion.
• The Fed official added that he wants inflation to be within the central bank’s target without causing undue harm to the labor market.

John Williams, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, reportedly stated on Friday that he sees no urgency to cut interest rates further following the 25 basis-point rate cut earlier this month.

During an interview with CNBC, Williams added that the recent employment and inflation data did little to change his monetary policy outlook.

“I don’t personally have a sense of urgency to need to act further on monetary policy right now, because I think the cuts we’ve made have positioned us really well,” he said.

‘Distorted’ November CPI

Williams stated that some technical factors may have “distorted” November Consumer Price Index (CPI) data.

“There were some practical factors that really are related to the fact that they weren’t able to collect data in October and not in the first half of November. And because of that, I think the data were distorted in some of the categories, and that pushed down the CPI reading, probably by a tenth or so,” he added.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the CPI rose at an annualized rate of 2.7% in November, below the 3.1% Dow Jones estimate compiled by MarketWatch.

Balancing Act

Williams stated that he wants inflation to be within the central bank’s target. “I want to see inflation come down to 2% without doing undue harm to the labor market. It’s a balancing act,” he added.

The Fed has projected core inflation at 2.5% in 2026 and 2.1% in 2027, staying above its long-term target of 2%.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities gained in Friday’s opening trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was up by 0.75%, the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) rose 1.15%, while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) gained 0.59%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘bearish’ territory.

The iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF) was down by 0.16% at the time of writing.

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