Fed's Lacker Wants The First Rate Hike To Come In June

Jeffrey Lacker, the president of the Richmond Fed said he wants the U.S. central bank to raise rates in June. "Given the job report, June strikes me as a leading candidate for liftoff," Lacker said in an interview on Wharton Business Radio on Sirius XM. Lacker said he wants the Fed to drop the work "patient" from its forward guidance at its meeting on March 17-18 so that June will become "a live option." Lacker said the job report signaled a very healthy labor market. Lacker is a voting member of the Fed's policy committee this year.