Chair Powell shared cloudy comments about the US labor market in Philadelphia. According to Michael McKee of Bloomberg, Mr. Powell gave “his version of the Hippocratic Oath,” regarding the upcoming rate cut, highlighted uncertainties in the labor market, and discussed the lack of data due to the government shutdown. Link to video- https://youtu.be/Krvi7vDWDMo?si=p2mjSdv4Bxhnpt9t&t=1535. The word “data-dependent” gets thrown around in the world of investing, finance and economics semantics consistently. While the word data is self-explanatory, as an adjective the word dependent means contingent on or determined by. A continued government shutdown will create a lag in data and depending on one’s tribe affiliation, the pungency of Chair Powell’s reaction function will be different. In this contemporaneous moment, the lack of government data supporting FOMC’s decision will be alarming. However, if we pull forward further along the x-axis, this cloudy period can just be a  rounding error.