The employment picture is in the rear-view mirror, and the Fed will now focus on inflation, BlackRock’s chief investment strategist for fixed income said Wednesday.
The central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee statement due out at 2 p.m. EDT will shift the market’s attention to price stability, Jeffrey Rosenberg said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” Some expect the FOMC to change the language it uses to signal when it will raise interest rates from near zero, using the phrase, “reasonably confident” rather than “patient.”
“If we remove ‘patience’ it’s going to be replaced with ‘reasonably confident.’ In what? In the outlook on inflation and the oil price story,” he said. “The labor market picture has clearly turned to where you no longer need zero interest rates. How quickly you normalize is really going to be about that outlook for inflation.”
