After every monthly meeting, the FOMC (the Federal Open Market Committee) publishes the minutes. The document provides in-depth information about the view of the board members, and what informed their decision.

The last meeting was held In June, and the minutes were released on Wednesday.

Here are some takeaways that could help traders navigate the markets in the following months.

Key Takeaways

  • From the document, it’s clear that any decision the FED will take will be informed exclusively by the data the economy is showing.

  • Even though the inflation seems to be slowing down, the FOMC didn’t commit to any rate cuts before more data will be available.

  • Specifically, the FED will be watching indicators such as jobs and inflation and base its decision about any changes in the policy on that.

  • The document also highlighted how several members of the FOMC are watching for any sign of a faster decline of the economy, or for a steep rise in unemployment.

  • The CPI, which is a key indicator of inflation, showed signs of decreasing inflation. At the same time, the economy started showing signs of a slowdown, something that was largely anticipated.

Conclusions

As the FOMC will be basing its decision on incoming data in the next few months, traders should be looking for this data carefully as well to catch any early sign of a further slowdown in inflation.

Should inflation stay under check, the FED will be treading any rate cuts carefully.