We recap the June FOMC meeting with our US economists and rates / FX strategists. We offer our views on the hawkish messaging and how to position across rates &amp; FX.<br><br>You may also enjoy listening to the Merrill Perspectives podcast, featuring conversations on the big stories, news and trends affecting your everyday financial life.<br><br>&quot;Bank of America&quot; and “BofA Securities” are the marketing names for the global banking businesses and global markets businesses (which includes BofA Global Research) of Bank of America Corporation. Lending, derivatives, and other commercial banking activities are performed globally by banking affiliates of Bank of America Corporation, including Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC. Securities, trading, research, strategic advisory, and other investment banking and markets activities are performed globally by affiliates of Bank of America Corporation, including, in the United States, BofA Securities, Inc. a registered broker-dealer and Member of FINRA and SIPC, and, in other jurisdictions, by locally registered entities. ©2026 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.

Task force hawkish

Global Research Unlocked

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Global Research Unlocked

## Transcript

Hello and welcome to Global Research Unlocked, the interest rate and FX series. This podcast is based on our weekly client conference call where our strategists, along with guests from other parts of Bank of America Global Research, discuss the most topical and pressing questions faced by our market. I'm Mark Cabana, co-head of U.S. rate strategy at BofA Securities.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. Obviously, a momentous FOMC meeting. I like to remind folks that we don't have a ton of Fed chair transitions. We've had only this is the fourth one in nearly 40 years, so much more rare than a World Cup final.

And certainly things changed a lot today. So let's start with the statement, Stephen. Sorry, let me start maybe by just introducing the folks on this call.

I'm Aditya Bhave. I lead the U.S. economics team, and I have the pleasure of being joined by my colleague, Stephen, who will speak in a second. He is our senior U.S. economist and also Mark Cabana, our co-head of global rate strategy, and Alex Cohen, our senior G10 FX strategist. So with those introductions done, Stephen, what did you see in the statement? What do you think was interesting?

Thanks, Aditya, and thanks, everyone, for joining. Obviously, an interesting meeting, a very interesting statement. I guess what really struck us at first was just the length of the statement. So we saw 130 word count. That was down from an average of about 250 words to start the year. It really looks like a length of a statement that we saw prior to the GFC. I mean, looking back at these things, in August 2008, you had 180. It very much looks like, say, a Greenspan era statement.

Before, we saw the Fed really adopt much more forward guidance, more communication, obviously, before the balance sheet was used as a tool as well. So you saw big changes in that regard. I think another thing that stood out is they didn't list the people who voted for the action. Obviously, they did start with the fact that the committee approved the following statement for release by a 12-0 vote. So unanimous decision. But previously, in all these statements, really even going back prior to the GFC with Bernanke, they would list out who voted for each action.

So we'll be curious to see. We didn't get the census time, but will that mean that dissents don't have to be named? Will they just come out kind of after the fact? Of course, we should still hear from the dissenters eventually, but it's a different kind of dynamic there. Lastly, I'll just say this because it was obviously brief, so there's not too much to talk about. But what I'll say that I guess stood out the most was maybe the last paragraph.

Inflation remains elevated relative to the committee's 2% goal, in part stress on that, reflecting supply shocks that have driven price increases in certain sectors, including energy. And finally, closing with the committ...

Task force hawkish

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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Task force hawkish

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.