Today the weekly data of the US labor market was published, confirming its cooling. Thus, the number of initial applications for unemployment benefits increased by 228.0K, which is slightly less than the previous indicator of 246.0K, but higher than the forecast of 200.0K. At the same time, the total number of citizens receiving assistance from the state increased from 1.817M to 1.823M instead of the expected decline to 1.699M. This statistic confirms the possibility of suspension of the interest rate hike cycle at the next meeting of the US Fed in May. We also note the corrections in the opinion of the head of the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) of Cleveland Loretta Mester, who on Tuesday argued that the cycle of monetary policy tightening should continue, and the rate should be raised above 5.0%, but already on Wednesday said that it was too early to talk about whether the cost of borrowing will be raised again in May.
