headlines from philly fed's patrick harker and cleveland's loretta messter set to drop at any minute charlie evans says that fundamentals are strong. todd barken says inflation is on target and add to that another solid read on the jobs front ahead of friday's big employment report so is the u.s. economy in a sweet spot michelle gehrard is a mansioning director with nat west markets great to have you both michelle, i'll start it off with you. are we expecting any clues as to the pace of hikes in 2019? it seems like december is pretty much a foregone conclusion when it comes to a hike >> and i think from the communication we heard from the fed, whether we go back to the fmoc statement, the press conference, the dots, tall the way through all of the fed speakers we've opinion hearing in recent days, the message is still very much that they are comfortable with a continued gradual pace of removing accommodation or raising interest rates i think that, as you said, we've got very strong economic growth. i think everybody continues to even be surprised by the vigor of the u.s. economy. eve