Fed vice chair in spotlight as markets seek rate hike clues

Fed Chair Janet Yellen decided to skip this year's meeting, so Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer is commanding top attention, with investors eagerly parsing his every word.

Incoming economic data and market developments over the next two weeks will play crucial roles in determining whether the Fed raises interest rates at its September meeting.

In an interview Friday with CNBC, Fischer acknowledged that before the recent market volatility, "there was a pretty strong case" for a rate hike at the Sept. 16-17 meeting, though it wasn't conclusive.

Fischer said his "confidence is pretty high" that low levels of inflation will head toward the Fed's target of 2 percent as temporary effects from a big drop in energy prices fade.

William Dudley, president of the New York Federal Reserve, helped ignite a Wall Street rally this week when he told reporters that the case for raising rates in September was "less compelling to me" that it had been a few weeks ago, before sudden fears about China's economy upset global markets.

[...] we'll see what happens by the September meeting, George, who doesn't have a vote on the Fed's policy committee this year under the committee's rotating system, told Fox Business Network.

Summers, in the Financial Times, urged delay saying a rate hike now "risks tipping some part of the financial system into crisis, with unpredictable and dangerous results."