US Fed Announcement Today: The US Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will decide on the next course of action in America’s monetary policy, today. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will announce the decision to cut or raise interest rates, or to maintain the status quo, on May 1 at 2 p.m. ET.
The FOMC meeting is in progress and is being conducted over two days – April 30 and May 1.
Following the Fed’s announcement, Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference. Investors around the world will be closely following the comments made by the chairman of the biggest central bank in the world. Powell’s conference may provide investors with clues regarding the future path of monetary policy.
US Fed Rate Hike Live Updates: US Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee to decide on next course of action in America’s monetary policy.
The annual inflation rate in the US accelerated for a second straight month to 3.5% in March 2024, the highest since September, compared to 3.2% in February and forecasts of 3.4%.
The annual core consumer price inflation rate in the United States, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy, stood at a near three-year low of 3.8% in March 2024, matching February’s reading and slightly above market forecasts of 3.7%.
Similar to the unrevised gain in February, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index grew by 0.3% last month.
Producer Prices in the United States increased to 143.69 points in March from 143.47 points in February of 2024. Producer Prices in the United States averaged 116.59 points from 2009 until 2024, reaching an all-time high of 143.69 points in March of 2024 and a record low of 100.20 points in November of 2009.
Takeaway: Inflation in the US remains untamed despite Federal Reserve raising rates from near zero to over 5% in nearly 18 months. Although inflation data showed a fall from the high of 9.1% seen in June 2022 to around 3% by early 2024, the stickiness remains. Of late, price rise could be witnessed in some pockets of the US economy, particularly the US CPI data in March.
For global markets, all eyes are on the US Fed in 2024 to see when the world’s strongest central bank will begin cutting interest rates. The question of whether the Federal Reserve should lower interest rates in 2024 at all is starting to take precedence over how many times to do so this year.
A significant portion of the attention will be on any shift in the tone of Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference and the post-meeting statement, as officials are largely expected to keep rates unchanged at a more than two-decade high at the end of their meeting on Wednesday.
Currently, the Fed Funds Rate (FFR) in America stands at a 23-year high of 5.25%-5.5%. US Fed in its previous FOMC meeting had left rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive time in March 2024. As per the Fed Dot Plot, Fed officials still plan to cut interest rates three times this year.
On the back of sticky inflation, most market experts expect US Fed to maintain the federal funds rate (FFR) at the current range of 5.25% to 5.50%.