Fed Chair Candidate Hassett Warns: Timing of December Pause in Rate Cuts "Very Bad"

After the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a stronger-than-expected September non-farm payrolls report, some Wall Street institutions raised the probability that the Federal Reserve will not cut interest rates next month.
On Thursday evening local time, JPMorgan Chase followed Morgan Stanley's lead and withdrew its forecast for a 25 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in December. The bank still expects the next rate cuts to take place in January and April next year.
But Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council and one of Mr. Trump's nominees for Fed chair, said earlier in the day that a pause in rate cuts would be "very bad timing" for the world's largest central bank, as the government shutdown had already weighed on economic growth in the fourth quarter.
Hassett said he expected the government shutdown to reduce gross domestic product by 1.5 percentage points in the fourth quarter, while pointing to September's consumer price index showing better-than-expected inflation.
"I don't think it's wise [to pause rate cuts], the economic headwinds in the fourth quarter are really strong," Hassett said in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Thursday, noting that the September jobs report was not enough to offset other factors.