Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is “torn” on whether to raise interests rates again this year, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday, but the economy indicates policymakers have room to do what they want.
Cramer spoke ahead of the release of the minutes from the June 13-14 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, where policymakers raised benchmark interest rates by a quarter point. The release is scheduled for around 2 p.m. ET.
The meeting minutes could show the timing of Fed’s plan to reduce its $4.5 trillion balance sheet and how inflation could sway future rate rises, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“I think the economy is OK. I think that inflation is lower than they want. They definitely want to get off the emergency,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.”
“I think that the Fed is kind of — it’s in a unique place. It can take a lot of action and not hurt the stock market. It can move and people will continue to buy the banks,” he said.
Cramer said he still expects to see a rate hike in September.
The central bank reiterated its federal funds rate forecast in June, saying it still expects its benchmark rate to reach 1.4 percent by the end of 2017.
Regarding the stock market, Cramer said there is a “great misconception” about the tech sector’s recent dip and it doesn’t just have to do with the FAANG stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet‘s Google.
“That rotation out of tech, I think it had much more to do with a markup that existed until the week before of a serious markup of everything internet of things, everything video games, everything of artificial intelligence and not social media and not web services,” he said.
Cramer also said he doesn’t understand why gold, considered a safe haven, hasn’t spiked after news that North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Also, read: Next up for markets: Fed could set a hawkish tone
Cramer says Janet Yellen is 'torn' on future Fed rate hikes