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“The economy remains stronger than participants at the meeting thought it would be when they started cutting in September, while improvements in inflation appear to have stalled,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, wrote in her preview note of the Fed meeting.

“You could have a reacceleration in inflation — that’s the risk,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm KPMG, said she expects a “January jobs boomlet” — 250,000 added jobs, well above the consensus.

Swonk also envisions strong hiring by healthcare companies and by state and local governments that are still flush with cash’’ and looking to fill vacancies that have been open since the economy began to recover from the pandemic recession.

“Powell played Santa Claus early,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG.