2 Fed officials think data will justify rate hike this year

William Dudley, president of the Fed's New York regional bank, and Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Fed, said that despite pressures from abroad, they thought the economy would keep performing at a solid enough pace to justify a rate hike at one of the Fed's final two meetings of the year.

Evans is among the Fed's "doves" — officials who worry more about threats from economic weakness than do "hawks," who focus more on the risk that inflation could run too high.

The mixed messages delivered Friday won't resolve the uncertainty that has seized investors over whether the Fed will start raising rates from record lows by year's end.

The trouble, he said, is that this strength is being offset somewhat by global weakness, including a slowdown in China, and a stronger U.S. dollar, which is hurting U.S. exports.

The three officials are among five regional bank presidents with a vote this year on the panel of Fed bank presidents and board members that meets eight times a year to set interest rate policy.

[...] Fed officials, including Chair Janet Yellen, have stressed that the rate increases will likely be very gradual, meaning that rates would still remain near historic lows for a while.