Fed's Daly says higher rates are likely needed despite tech-stock slide

San Francisco Fed President Daly said on Friday, November 6, 2026, that a Federal Reserve rate hike is likely. She made the comment despite what she called a "painful" dive in technology stocks.

Her remarks put the focus on the Fed's inflation fight at a time when equity markets, and technology shares in particular, are under pressure.

What happened

Daly spoke on Friday and commented on the jobs report released the same day. Her central message was that higher interest rates "are likely to be needed" to bring inflation under control.

She also addressed the sharp fall in technology shares. She described the decline as painful, but she did not present it as a reason to rule out tighter policy. In her view, a rate increase remains the likely path.

Two news reports carried her remarks on Friday afternoon. Both stressed the same two points: her call for higher rates and her description of the technology selloff as painful. Neither report gave a rate level, a date for a Fed move or a figure for the size of the stock decline, so this article does not state one.

Why it matters

Daly is president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Her comments are one voice within the Fed's policy debate, and they show how at least one policymaker weighs two pressures: inflation on one side and market stress on the other.

The statement is notable because it separates the two issues. A fall in equity prices can sometimes lead investors to expect softer monetary policy. Daly's remarks point the other way: she links the policy outlook to inflation, not to the direction of technology stocks.

The comment on the jobs report also matters. Labor market data is one of the main inputs for central bankers when they judge whether the economy can absorb higher rates. By tying her view to that report, Daly signals that employment conditions are part of her reasoning.

The remarks also matter for the wider policy discussion. A rate increase would be a tightening of monetary policy, and it would raise borrowing costs for households and companies. A central bank official who calls such a step likely, while markets are falling, shows that inflation remains the priority in her assessment.

Market impact

The remarks arrive while technology stocks are in a steep decline, which Daly herself called painful. Higher borrowing costs are a factor that market participants often associate with pressure on growth-oriented sectors, and technology is the sector at the center of the current selloff.

The remarks are an individual view and do not amount to a Fed decision. They do add to the information markets use when they assess the direction of US interest rates. For companies and investors that depend on funding conditions, a signal that rates may rise is relevant to planning, even though no new policy step has been announced.

The research material for this story does not include price levels for equity indexes, Treasury yields or the dollar, so this article does not quantify the market reaction. It reports only what Daly said and the context in which she said it.

What to watch next

The key question is whether other Fed officials share Daly's assessment that higher rates are likely to be needed. Further public comments from policymakers will show how widely that view is held inside the central bank.

Observers will also follow how technology stocks behave after Daly's remarks, and whether the Fed's messaging on inflation stays consistent with a possible rate increase. The jobs report Daly discussed will remain a reference point in that debate, since she used it to frame her comments on policy.

No calendar event is attached to this story. The next signals will come from further statements by Fed officials and from the data they cite when they explain their views on inflation and employment.