Pins And Needles For Powell: Fed Chief’s Words, Path Of Future Rates, Awaited

Pins And Needles For Powell: Fed Chief’s Words, Path Of Future Rates, Awaited

Word comes down from Constitution Avenue today on how long the Fed thinks these zero rates might last. It won't be in the form of any promises, obviously, but the Fed's "dot plot" of future rates might get a closer look than normal from investors veering between excitement over reopening and fear of overheating. Last December's dot-plot showed only one Fed official predicting a rate hike next year and five seeing one in 2023. The question is, will today's report show more hawkishness? Leading up to the end of the meeting, trading this morning might be a "rinse and repeat" of what we saw yesterday, with everyone waiting around for the Fed. It seems unlikely that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will say anything that much different, but this meeting has more meaning than most because we're on the verge of the vaccine taking hold and the economy picking up. There could be a lot of change before the Fed's next meeting in late April. No one, not even Fed governors, knows for sure where rates might be a year or two from now. That being said, today offers the first road map of their extended thinking since December, a time