Fed Seen With Case to ‘Hike Right Now’ as Bar to Act Gets Lower

The bar for a Federal Reserve rate hike is falling as the job market remains robust in the face of stubborn price pressures, according to Collin Martin at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

“If we look at it strictly in a vacuum, the case can be made for a hike right now,” Martin, the head of fixed income research and strategy at the Schwab Center, said Monday on Bloomberg Television’s Surveillance. “We have inflation that’s been high for five years and counting and moving in the wrong direction.”

The catalysts for higher rates are strengthening even as President ...