Fed's Bullard: Chair Powell officially opened taper discussion at last meeting

FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell officially opened taper discussion at the last meeting and more in-depth discussion will follow, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told CNBC on Friday, as reported by Reuters.

Additional takeaways

"Upcoming fiscal debates on infrastructure are not likely to influence monetary policy."

"Fed has eye on equity market valuations but different members have different opinions on how that influences policy."

"Taper is a complicated issue with several parts to sort out including pace, MBS vs. Treasury."

"Volatile data this time means taper may need to more state-contingent, less-automatic, than the last time."

"US does not want to get back into a housing bubble."

"Supporting the idea that month to month taper should be more dependent on conditions, the path of inflation and reopening."

"Fed has to be ready to adjust taper as necessary."

"Going to take several meetings for the Fed to get organized on taper, with a healthy debate to come."

"Pandemic is coming to a close, so it's natural to figure out how to pare back emergency measures."

"Fed intended to get inflation above 2% target and looks like we are going to succeed."

"June Fed meeting represented a somewhat hawkish move."

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index is edging higher on these comments and was last seen gaining 0.16% on the day at 92.05.