Stocks sink after meeting Warsh the hawk

Kim Khan· Host0:00

[instrumental music] Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis. Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, June seventeenth, and I'm your host, Kim Khan. This is a special Fed edition of Wall Street Lunch. New Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh delivered an unexpectedly hawkish debut press conference after the central bank kept rates on hold. Warsh stressed defeating inflation, sunsetting forward guidance, and shaking up Fed practice with the help of his task force five. Here's what to know about the decision. The FOMC kept rates on hold at three and a half to three point seven five percent, as widely expected, with a unanimous vote. The statement shrank to one hundred and thirty words from three forty-one at the last meeting, in keeping with Warsh's later assertion that forward guidance wasn't suitable for the current policy environment. The statement said the committee will deliver price stability, half of its dual mandate. Warsh also abstained from placing a dot on the dot plot. The rest of the FOMC did, though, and they now price in a hike for twenty twenty six. Janney strategist Guy Lebas called the approach constructive ambiguity. At the press conference, Warsh hammered home his message on price stability. "The Fed statement says that inflation is primarily determined by monetary policy. You bet it is. I've said for years inflation is a choice. You bet it is," he said. Warsh said the FOMC would not alter its two percent inflation target, and hitting that target is exactly what we're going to do. All this surprised traders, who expected Warsh to be more receptive to the rate cuts President Trump