Finance

Fed’s Mester still expects rate cuts this year, but rules out May

Published

1 year ago

April 2, 2024

President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Loretta Mester makes an appearance on “The Exchange” on March 7, 2024.

CNBC

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said Tuesday she still expects interest rate cuts this year, but ruled out the next policy meeting in May.

Mester also indicated that the long-run path is higher than policymakers had previously thought.

The central bank official noted progress made on inflation while the economy has continued to grow. Should that continue, rate cuts are likely, though she didn’t offer any guidance on timing or extent.

“I continue to think that the most likely scenario is that inflation will continue on its downward trajectory to 2 percent over time. But I need to see more data to raise my confidence,” Mester said in prepared remarks for a speech in Cleveland.

Additional inflation readings will provide clues as to whether some higher-than-expected data points this year either were temporary blips or a sign that the progress on inflation “is stalling out,” she added.

“I do not expect I will have enough information by the time of the FOMC’s next meeting to make that determination,” Mester said.

Those remarks come nearly two weeks after the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee again voted to hold its key overnight borrowing rate in a range between 5.25%-5.5%, where it has been since July 2023. The post-meeting statement echoed Mester’s remarks that the committee needs to see more evidence that inflation is progressing toward the 2% target before it will start reducing rates.

Mester’s comments would seem to rule out a cut at the April 30-May 1 FOMC meeting, a sentiment also reflected in market pricing. Mester is a voting member of the FOMC but will leave in June after having served the 10-year limit.

Futures traders expect the Fed to start easing in June and to cut by three-quarters of a percentage point by the end of the year.

While looking for rate cuts, Mester said she thinks the long-run federal funds rate will be higher than the long-standing expectation of 2.5%. Instead, she sees the so-called neutral or “r*” rate at 3%. The rate is considered the level where policy is neither restrictive nor stimulative. After the March meeting, the long-rate rate projection moved up to 2.6%, indicating there are other members leaning higher.

Mester noted the rate was very low when the Covid pandemic hit and gave the Fed little wiggle room to boost the economy.

“At this point, we are seeking to calibrate our policy well to economic developments so we can avoid having to act in an aggressive fashion,” she said.

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Finance

Conservative cable channel Newsmax shares plunge more than 70% after a dizzying 2-day surge

Published

3 hours ago

April 2, 2025

Business Finance News

A Newsmax booth broadcasts as attendees try out the guns on display at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention in Houston, Texas, U.S. May 29, 2022.

Callaghan O’hare | Reuters

Shares of conservative news channel Newsmax plunged more than 70% on Wednesday as its meteoric rise as a new public company proved to be short-lived.

The stock tumbled a whopping 72% in afternoon trading, following a 2,230% surge in Newsmax’s first two days of trading after debuting on the New York Stock Exchange. At one point, the rally gave the company a market capitalization of nearly $30 billion — surpassing the market cap of legacy media companies like Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp.

Newsmax was listed on the NYSE via a so-called Regulation A offering, instead of a traditional IPO. Such an offering allows small companies to raise capital without undergoing the full SEC registration process. The primary focus is to sell to retail investors, in this case It was sold to approximately 30,000 retail investors.

The public offering indeed garnered the attention from retail traders, some of whom touted the stock as the “New GME” in online chatrooms. GME refers to the meme stock GameStop, which made Wall Street history in 2021 by its speculative trading boom.

Newsmax has a small “float,” or shares available for trading. Less than 6% of Newsmax shares, or 7.5 million shares out of a total of 128 million fully diluted shares, are available for public trading.

The conservative TV news outlet has seen its ratings rise with the election of President Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans — although it still falls behind the dominant Fox News. Overall, Newsmax ranks in the top 20 among cable network average viewership in both prime time and daytime, Nielsen said.