Interest rates set to rise as Fed meeting concludes

• June 13, 2018
• realestatelife
• Announcements, Business & Markets, Real Estate, Real Estate Finance, Your Real Estate Life

The Fed is teeing up another interest rate hike as the two-day meeting wraps up on Wednesday.

The benchmark federal-funds rate would rise to a range between 1.75% and 2%.

That would be at a level similar or above where it was from late 2001 to 2004.

Investors will be paying attention to the Fed statement as well as Chairman Jerome Powell’s language regarding the future of rates.

Some believe the Fed may soon be nearing the end of its rising rate cycle.

The central bank raised rates in March and policymakers say they expect two more upward moves before the end of the year.

The Fed raised rates three times last year.

Powell is due to holding a news conference following this rate decision.

He is also considering holding a press conference after every policy meeting rather than every other meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The paper noted that since beginning press conferences in 2011, the central bank has fallen into the pattern of making major policy changes only at meetings followed by a news conference.

The practice has lulled markets into thinking the central bank won’t act between press conferences.
Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke started the news conferences in an attempt to make the central bank more transparent.