Stifel Financial Corp. (2SI.F)

Don't worry, inflation is going to settle: Stifel CEO explains

The US economy is all about rates these days as the Federal Reserve opts to hold interest rates higher for longer, which has not eased mortgage rates for potential homebuyers still taxing around the housing market. Stifel Chairman and CEO Ron Kruszewski joins Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi at the 2024 Milken Conference to have a conversation about the strength of the US economy and whether Wall Street is still sobering up from its rate cut hopes heading into 2024. "I said I would've been surprised in January with whether it would be two and now, I'd be surprised if there's even one today," Kruszewski says, referring back to his comments to Yahoo Finance in January at the World Economic Forum. "And the reason for that is the economy's very strong. The inflation is stickier, it is persistent right here. It's gonna settle..." Kruszewski recognizes the Fed's caution around avoiding risks: "The risk is either not having a soft lining, which is a risk, or reigniting inflation. The bigger risk is clearly letting the inflation genie back out of the bag as you started to corral." He considers the Fed's scaling back of its Quantitative Tightening (QT) policy as its own kind of rate cut. Kruszewski goes on to speak with Sozzi about the long-term rate environment Americans could expect over the next ten years and market (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) behavior around domestic and global geopolitical events. Catch more of Yahoo Finance's coverage at the 2024 Milken Institute Global Conference. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.