The manager turned first to a discussion of monetary policy expectations in the United States. Federal Reserve communications since the March FOMC meeting were perceived as signaling a more rapid removal of policy accommodation than had been expected, resulting in significant shifts in expectations regarding the path of the federal funds rate. For the current meeting, federal funds futures implied around 50 basis points of policy rate tightening, and Open Market Desk survey respondents assigned an average probability of 80 percent to that outcome. The median Desk survey respondents also projected 50-basis-point ... (full story)