Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said he needs to see “more positive” inflation readings before supporting interest-rate cuts, tempering expectations that the U.S. central bank will ease policy soon. In remarks reported by Bloomberg, the policymaker said the latest data create "a note of unease" and warrant further confirmation that price pressures are continuing to ease toward the Fed’s 2% target. His comments follow a hotter-than-anticipated July Producer Price Index, which climbed to its highest level in three years, driven largely by services costs. Consumer prices earlier in the week told a similar story, as dental care and airline fares contributed to a pickup in core CPI. The combination has complicated the Fed’s balancing act as slowing payroll growth suggests emerging strain in the labor market. Despite the data, futures markets still assign roughly an 85% probability of a quarter-point rate cut at the Fed’s 17 September meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Investors will look for clarification when Chair Jerome Powell addresses the annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday, an event Wells Fargo analysts say could also outline a longer-term review of the central bank’s policy framework.