Fed's Mary Daly Signals More Rate Hikes Needed Amid Persistent Inflation

SentiSense · Published Nov 6, 2026, 1:05 PM ET · Updated Nov 6, 2026, 5:10 PM ET

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said Friday that higher interest rates are likely to be needed to bring inflation down, while calling October's jobs report good news. She said prices have risen too quickly for too long, that wage growth is not booming and real wages are falling, and that she would like more confidence in the inflation outlook. She did not say when the Fed would act or by how much.

San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly said on Friday that higher interest rates "are likely to be needed" to bring inflation down. She said prices have been rising too quickly for too long and that she would like her confidence about the inflation outlook to be higher. Bloomberg reported that she also said it is too soon to know how much higher rates will need to go.

Daly called October's jobs report "good news" for the labor market. The report showed payrolls rising by 165,000 and the unemployment rate falling to 4.1%, and FXStreet quoted her saying the solid data "gives latitude to get the inflation job done." She qualified the picture on pay, noting that wage growth is not booming and that real wages are falling, which means households are still losing ground to prices even as hiring holds up.

The remarks came a day after a steep technology selloff in which the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 12%. Reuters reported that Daly still expects further hikes despite what she called a "painful" tech-stock dive, a signal that equity weakness on its own may not be enough to stop the Fed from tightening again.

Timing and size remain open: Daly told CNBC that when the Fed acts and by how much is undecided. The next inflation releases and other Fed officials' comments are the main inputs to watch, along with rate-sensitive sectors and growth stocks, which tend to react most to shifts in expected policy.