'Several' and 'Many' are the key words in the FOMC minutes

‘Several’ and ‘many’ are two of the more important words when the FOMC releases its minutes, especially from their meeting three weeks ago because we know that speaks for the majority, whose word is sometimes used too.

Here were some of the noteworthy lines from the just released minutes that include those words:

In what could be the bottom line for the minutes in terms of how the Fed will be approaching their last three meeting of the year with current information in hand, but which will of course evolve over the next 4 months as new information comes in,

“Participants generally pointed to risks to both sides of the Committee's dual mandate, emphasizing upside risk to inflation and downside risk to employment. A majority of participants judged the upside risk to inflation as the greater of these two risks, while several participants viewed the two risks as roughly balanced, and a couple of participants considered downside risk to employment the more salient risk.”

This one stood out as it doesn’t point to a Fed wanting to goose this further, “Several participants noted concerns about elevated asset valuation pressures.”

“In terms of timing, many participants noted that it could take some time for the full effects of higher tariffs to be felt in consumer goods and services prices. Participants cited several contributors to this likely lag. These included the stockpiling of inventories in anticipation of higher tariffs; slow pass-through of input cost increases into final goods and services prices; gradual updating of contract prices; maintenance of firm–customer relationships; issues related to tariff collection; and still-ongoing trade negotiations.”