Two Federal Reserve officials on Thursday indicated some optimism on inflation, though neither indicated a likelihood that interest rates will change anytime soon.Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said Thursday that inflation is still trending the wrong way though there have been a few bright spots. A little later in the afternoon, New York Fed President John Williams said he expects inflation readings to start trending lower.In a live CNBC interview from his home district, Goolsbee declined to speculate on where he thinks interest rates are headed. However, he said he remains squarely focused on inflation, in remarks that reflected sentiment new Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh expressed a week ago.”You have seen now little bit of improvement on this services inflation, and I’ve been identifying that as something that we would want to see,” Goolsbee said from the trading floor of the Cboe. “But right now, as between the two sides of the Fed’s mandate, the inflation side and the job market side, clearly the problem’s on the inflation side.”The comments came hours after the Commerce Department reported that core inflation as gauged by the Fed’s preferred benchmark, the personal consumption expenditures price index, stood at 3.4% in May, its highest since October 2023. Price increases were fairly evenly distributed, with goods rising 0.4% and services up 0.5%, the most since January. On the goods side, much of the gain was driven by energy, which jumped 6.5%, while services was pushed higher by transportation services, a sector sensitive to gas prices and which accelerated 0.8%.Markets expect the Fed could raise its benchmark rate in September, but Goolsbee would …
