Fed Rate Hike Timing Delayed After Weak GDP and Deflation

The Federal Reserve just blinked in Wall Street’s newest game — that is the game of Rate Hike Chicken! After having moved from being patient to including the possibility of a June or summer rate hike, the new Fed statement looks like the Fed has just become data-driven, meaning we are now on meeting by meeting bias on how far out it will really be before the interest rate hikes will come.

24/7 Wall St. would like to remind readers about one key issue — Do not think for a second that the Commerce Department’s first quarter GDP reading with a tiny 0.2% gain, followed by anemic inflation to outright deflation, did not play a role in Janet Yellen and the rest of the Fed backing off the timing of when Fed Fund rate hikes would come. Another clue — the vote was 10-0.

If you read through the statement, as we…