Stock market drop far from harming U.S. economy -Fed's Mester
NEW YORK, Oct 25 (Reuters) - The recent cratering of stockmarkets is nowhere near severe enough to rattle confidence andsignificantly hurt U.S. business and consumer spending, a Fedofficial said on Thursday, in the latest unruffled message fromthe U.S. central bank.
In a speech, Loretta Mester, president of the Cleveland Fed, reinforced the U.S. central bank'[s steady-as-she-goesexpectation to keep gradually raising interest rates in the faceof a nearly month-long fall in major U.S. equity indexes, whichhas been driven by worries over the effects of U.S. tariffs anda slowdown in China.
"While a deeper and more persistent drop in equity marketscould dash confidence and lead to a significant pullback inrisk-taking and spending, we are far from this scenario," saidMester, who leans somewhat hawkish.
"Similar to the swings in the market we saw earlier thisyear, the movements of late do not seem to be signaling thatinvestors are becoming overly pessimistic," she added.
(Reporting by Jonathan SpicerEditing by Leslie Adler)
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