Rates as of 0630 GMT

Market Recap

US Fed Chair Powell gave the markets a kick when he suggested the Fed is likely to hike 50 bps at next months meeting and may tighten policy past neutral. It is appropriate in my view to be moving a little more quickly, the Fed chair said at a panel discussion hosted by the IMF. We make these decisions at the meeting and well make them meeting by meeting, but I would say that 50 basis points will be on the table for . . . May. Were really going to be raising rates and getting expeditiously to levels that are more neutral and then that are actually tightening policy if that turns out to be appropriate once we get there, he added.

SF Fed President Daly NV, one of the more dovish people on the ratesetting Federal Open Market Committee FOMC, even said a 75 bps hike would likely be debated, although she didnt seem too keen on the idea. The hawkish St. Louis Fed President Bullard V also wouldnt rule out a 75 bps hike.

The overnight index swap OIS market is now pricing in a small chance of a 75 bps hike at the May meeting and a 50 bps hike at the June and July meetings.

FYI today is the last day for Fed officials to speak publicly before the blackout period begins on Saturday. Fed officials arent allowed to speak about policy starting from the second Saturday before an FMOC meeting.

Powell wasnt the only hawk hawking his hawkish views Following European Central Bank ECB Governing Council Member Kazaks comments on Tuesday that a rate…