Brian Chappatta, Columnist

Fed Skips Over Repo as Doves and Hawks Squabble

The central bank opted not to quickly take a stand on this week’s frenzy in funding markets.

September 18, 2019 at 7:52 PM UTC

Brian Chappatta is managing editor of Bloomberg News' leveraged finance and distressed debt teams. He was previously managing editor and team leader of its wealth group. Before that he was a Bloomberg Opinion markets and finance columnist and a bonds reporter for Bloomberg News.

Like he needed another thing to worry about.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision on Wednesday was never going to be easy for Chair Jerome Powell.

He and his colleagues had to reach consensus on how to weigh the U.S.-China trade war against a still-solid labor market and American consumer, not to mention signs of a pickup in inflation. They had to contend with whipsawing bond markets, which were pricing in almost three quarter-point rate cuts for 2019 at the start of September but expected fewer than two ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting.