As expected, Chair Powell’s press conference last week’s focused on the overheated labor market.  Some second-tier labor market indicators, like job vacancies and the quits rate, got primetime billing.  Next Wednesday’s JOLTS report may overshadow the monthly employment report due two days later.  In the meantime, we’ll be tracking private-sector indicators that provide early color on various JOLTS-style labor market concepts. 

Also, this week’s MMO looks at the surprising rise in discount window activity since the spring.  The level of primary credit borrowing is still too low to be meaningful from a near-term perspective, and we’re skeptical that volume will grow enough to have an impact on front-end liquidity dynamics anytime soon.  However, the fact remains that we don’t have an adequate explanation for the growth in volume thus far, and we cannot rule out the possibility that more banks will overcome their discount window aversion in the months ahead.