No one is predicting the Federal Reserve won’t raise interest rates in its Federal Open Markets Committee meeting later this week.
Experts even said November’s jobs report all but guarantees December interest rate hike. Now, just two days before the big announcement, all major news outlets are reporting to Fed will, in fact, raise rates.
USA Today reports while policymakers and economists are puzzled by low wage growth, the Fed is still optimistic enough to raise rates.
From the article:
A Fed rate hike later that day appears all but certain, with fed fund futures markets giving the move 90% odds. It would be the Fed’s third quarter-point bump this year. A big question is whether Fed officials will modify their median forecast of three rate increases next year.
Or take this line from Business Insider, saying economists won’t even be watching to see if the Fed raises rates – it’s already a given – but will instead be focused on predictions for rate hikes next year.
From the article:
A December rise in the federal funds rate to a range of 1.25% to 1.50% has long been baked into Wall Street estimates. Economists will therefore be paying closer attention to the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) policy statement, its latest economic forecasts and Janet Yellen's last press conference as the central bank chair. The meeting will take place on December 12 and 13.
Or this forecast from Nasdaq:
Inevitably, in a week when the Fed’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets, the market’s focus will be on that meeting and any changes or announcements that come out of it. Going into this month’s meeting, most observers are expecting a rate hike, probably of one quarter of one percent, or twenty-five basis points in market-speak, yet the general feeling is that stocks will end the week higher.
This would become the third interest rate hike of this year, and many experts are predicting as many as four more rate hikes to come in 2018.
