Federal Reserve officials are convening in Washington, D.C., today for their March FOMC meeting, which will conclude with a decision on interest rates on Wednesday followed by a press conference with Chair Jerome Powell. The US central bank is expected to hold rates where they are, with some economists projecting the Fed won't even cut rates this year or next year.
Yahoo Finance senior Fed reporter Jennifer Schonberger breaks down former Kansas City Fed CEO Esther George's rate forecasts and Wall Street's own inflation expectations.
Read up on Jennifer Schonberger's coverage of Trump naming Federal Reserve governor Michelle Bowman as the central bank's new vice chair for supervision.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here.
The Fed kicked off its two-day policy meeting this morning in Washington. Here on what we can expect, we have our Fed correspondent, Jennifer Schaumburg. Hey, Jennifer.
Hey, Maddie. The Federal Reserve widely expected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady when it concludes its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. But the bigger question is how President Donald Trump's policies could change the Fed's outlook for the economy and thus setting interest rates. With so much uncertainty surrounding Trump's tariffs, the central bank is likely to strike a cautious note. Fed chair, J. Powell is likely to reiterate that the Fed is not in a hurry to cut interest rates as it awaits clarity on the administration's policies and their impact on the economy. Investors will receive the Fed's latest interest rate projections, which aren't expected to change much. In December, the Fed projected two rate cuts for this year, and many Fed watchers expect officials will retain that outlook for now amid uncertainty, even as the market is pricing in three cuts for this year. Former Kansas City Fed president, Esther George, says she thinks Fed officials will maintain two rate cuts because officials already set expectations and explained that the cuts could come later this year. George says it's quote, not the time to cut rates at this stage, noting that the Fed has an inflation problem too. George says she thinks tariffs could hurt growth, but also says they could push up inflation. New York Fed president, John Williams, also said earlier this month he thinks that tariffs could contribute to inflation. Investors will certainly be looking for whether the Federal Reserve decides to increase its outlook for inflation while lowering its outlook for growth. Goldman Sachs projects that the Fed will pick up, will increase rather its outlook for inflation to 2.8% this year from 2.5%, while dialing back its outlook for growth to 1.8% from 2.1% because of tariffs. George, for her part, says that when Fed officials look at the outlook for the economy, they could be growing more worried when they model out what the tariffs mean.