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Fed’s Kashkari Says Treasury Market Still Working ‘As It Should’ - BLOOMBERG
BY Christopher Condon
(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari played down concerns over rising US Treasury yields, saying markets are functioning well and the recent surge is unlikely to affect monetary policy deliberations.
"There's every indication that the US Treasury market is functioning as it should, that trades are taking place, that there's liquidity in the market, and so that enables us to focus on the federal funds rate as our primary policy tool to get inflation back down," Kashkari said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation.
Treasury yields across the curve rose last week, with the benchmark 10-year ending the week at around 4.73%. The 30-year remained near its highest level since 2007.
Kashkari said that while Treasury yields are high relative to recent history, they were meaningfully higher in the 1990s.
Fed policymakers will next meet in September. At their July gathering they opted to leave interest rates unchanged for the fifth straight time. Kashkari was among three officials who, out of concern for persistent inflation, dissented in favor of a quarter percentage point rate hike.
On Sunday, Kashkari repeated those worries, but stopped short of saying he would once again call for a rate hike in September.
"We need to see more data, but I don't want to prejudge the next meeting," he said. "But I'm not feeling confident right now that inflation is heading back down to target in a short period of time."
This week investors will be closely watching the Fed's new chairman, Kevin Warsh, who's scheduled to deliver keynote remarks on Friday at the central bank's annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
