Post-FOMC: Rates Steady, CPI Still High

Last night, the Fed kept interest rates unchanged as expected, but the Dot Plot showed an overall picture of potentially fewer rate cuts this year. This isn't too surprising, as the latest CPI is still clearly above the Fed's target.

What's noteworthy is that the market has started to adjust its rate cut estimates further down. It's now pricing in only one rate cut this year, reflecting a still-strong economy and entrenched inflation. Personally, I still believe inflation will persist longer than most of the market expects. We need to be cautious of downward pressure on risk assets if the Fed doesn't ease policy easily.

In terms of the Watchlist, I'll focus on groups that benefit from high interest rates, such as $X, whose price is moving around 54.84, and gold $GLD, which is up 0.95% today at 368.41 and remains interesting as a Safe Haven. As for Emerging Markets or highly volatile currencies like $MXNJPY, which is now down -0.43% around 9.25975, extra caution may be needed.