美联储5月议息会议点评：两难境地下，美联储择机降息难度提升

1. Report Industry Investment Rating No relevant content provided. 2. Core View of the Report The Fed continued to pause rate cuts for the third time, maintaining the federal funds rate target range at 4.25%-4.5%. The difficulty of the Fed's timing rate cuts has increased. The Fed's "wait-and-see" stance continues, and it reaffirms that there is no need to rush into action. If the economic downward pressure increases significantly and the risk of inflation rebound is realized simultaneously, the current expectation of three rate cuts within the year may be revised [1][23]. 3. Summary by Related Catalogs 3.1 Interest Rate Decision and Market Reaction - The Fed continued to pause rate cuts for the third time, keeping the federal funds rate target range at 4.25%-4.5%, and the reserve balance rate and discount rate remained at 4.4% and 4.5% respectively. After the rate decision was announced, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield briefly rose from 4.26% to 4.29%, the three major U.S. stock indexes first declined and then rose, and the U.S. dollar index rose. After the press conference began, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell to around 4.28%, with little overall change, the U.S. stocks fluctuated in the red, the U.S. dollar index continued to strengthen, COMEX gold fell, and crude oil fluctuated in a narrow range [1][3]. 3.2 Interest Rate Statement - The main adjustments in the interest rate statement revolve around the description of the economic outlook, including three points: adding "although the fluctuations in net exports have affected the relevant data" at the beginning, but emphasizing the judgment that "U.S. economic activity continues to expand steadily"; pointing out that "the uncertainty of the economic outlook has further increased"; and clearly stating that the risks of high unemployment and high inflation have both risen [1][5]. 3.3 Economic Situation - The economic outlook faces high uncertainty, but there is no conclusive evidence at the data level. Powell said at the press conference that the economy remains resilient, but the outlook is still highly uncertain. If high tariffs are maintained, the negative impact on the economy will gradually emerge, which is not yet reflected in the data. In the first quarter of 2025, the U.S. GDP's quarter-on-quarter annualized rate declined by 0.3%, with net exports and government consumption and investment dragging down GDP by 4.83 and 0.25 percentage points respectively. Since the beginning of the year, the University of Michigan consumer expectation index has dropped sharply, reaching a low of 47.30 as of March 2025, reflecting concerns about trade policies [1][8]. 3.4 Labor Market - The overall state of the employment market is stable, but attention should be paid to the risk of rising unemployment. In April, the number of new non-farm payrolls in the United States was 177,000. The service industry is still the main contributor to the employment market, but the number of new jobs in industries such as retail, leisure, and hospitality that are more sensitive to economic elasticity has slowed down significantly compared to March, and the number of new jobs in the federal government has declined for the third consecutive month. The unemployment rate remained stable at 4.0%-4.2%, and the month-on-month growth rate of hourly wages slowed down [16]. 3.5 Inflation - The impact of tariffs on inflation remains uncertain, and inflation expectation indicators continue to rise. Powell said at the press conference that the impact of tariffs on inflation may be short-term or long-term, and the Fed's responsibility is to maintain the stability of long-term inflation expectations. In March, the U.S. CPI data was lower than expected across the board. Considering that the impact of the "reciprocal tariff" policy has not yet been reflected in the March data, its guidance for interest rate decisions is relatively limited. Recently, the University of Michigan inflation expectation index has continued to rise, increasing the difficulty of decision-making in a stagflation environment [17].