Key points from Jackson Hole 2024

The key points from Powell's speech to the Kansas City Fed's annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming:

• "The time has come for policy to adjust. The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks."
• "My confidence has grown that inflation is on a sustainable path back to 2 percent."
• "It seems unlikely that the labor market will be a source of elevated inflationary pressures anytime soon. We do not seek or welcome further cooling in labor market conditions."
• "But the inflation and labor market data show an evolving situation. The upside risks to inflation have diminished. And the downside risks to employment have increased."
• "We will do everything we can to support a strong labor market as we make further progress toward price stability."

Unless something unexpected happened to cause inflation data to surprise us, the Fed's focus is on the labor market, which is the main measurement of the economy of U.S. The upcoming Wednesday 10am JOLTs Job Opening will be watched by everybody!

The market has already priced in Sep rate cut for a long time. The only question is how rapidly do and how much does US need to cut rate. For the stock market short term, the good news will be good news again!