It's Thursday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Well, first we have good inflation news , that inflation fell, beating estimates, with prices rising, "Just 0.1% in May."

But don't worry, the Federal Reserve has no intention of cutting rates any faster, in fact, they just announced that they will be cutting rates less, only once (maybe) instead of twice:

US Federal Reserve officials have signalled that they expect to cut interest rates just once this year, taking a hawkish stance on inflation as they held borrowing costs at a 23-year high.

Updated forecasts on Wednesday showed the Fed’s median rate-setter anticipated making one quarter-point cut this year, surprising traders who had priced in two cuts before the report. The central bank held rates at 5.25 to 5.5 per cent.

The new predictions marked a significant change from the Federal Open Market Committee’s last “dot plot” in March, when officials signalled three cuts this year — and showed lingering concerns that inflation remains above the Fed’s 2 per cent target.

………

The hawkish signal from the Fed came despite the release — just hours ahead of the meeting — of cooler-than-expected consumer price index data for May, which triggered a sharp equity market rally and pushed down Treasury yields as traders bet on two rate cuts this year.

Let's be clear on this.  When the FOMC made this announcement, they already had the inflation data.

They get it before public release.

They just want to get the American worker back into peonage, which, if the latest unemployment numbers are any indication, they are getting:

Initial applications for US unemployment benefits jumped to the highest level in nine months, led by a large increase in California, during a period where holidays and the end of school year can cause fluctuations in claims.

Initial claims increased by 13,000 to 242,000 in the week ended June 8, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The figure was above all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

The US unemployment rate rose to 4% last month — reaching that level for the first time in more than two years and mostly reflecting people returning to the workforce and not finding a job. Layoffs, however, have remained subdued.

………

Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving unemployment benefits, rose to 1.82 million in the week ended June 1, which included Memorial Day. Weekly data can fluctuate around holidays.

In the 20 years that preceded the Covid-19 pandemic, weekly initial applications averaged about 345,000, and continuing claims roughly 2.9 million.

This is not about taming inflation, this is about taming the American worker, who has gotten uppity lately.