Additional two Fed-hikes to come this year?- Nomura

Analysts at Nomura noted that last week, several FOMC members indicated a firming commitment to two additional hikes for 2017, conditional on the economy performing in line with expectations.

Key Quotes:

"In a Bloomberg interview, Dallas Fed President Kaplan said, “the median of three rate increases for this year—we’ve already done one—is still a good baseline.” Possibly reflecting last week’s downside surprise in the March CPI report and the tepid spending data, Boston Fed President Rosengren stated the appropriateness of raising the target rate even though “recent data has been a little softer than I was expecting.” 

On the balance sheet policy, Vice Chair Fisher stated, “we appear less likely to face major market disturbances now than we did in the case of the taper tantrum,” in addressing concerns over the possible market reactions to potential changes in balance sheet policy."