The US Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) had voted to lift the Federal Funds Rate (FFR) target range to 0.25-0.50% from 0.00-0.25%, as expected. In the Fed’s updated statement on monetary policy, it signaled that further rate hikes would be appropriate, as expected.
Fed
The Fed is getting ready to raise interest rates
The Federal Reserve is getting ready to raise interest rates, the central bank said in its monetary policy update Wednesday. But it kept rates near zero for now. “With inflation well above 2% and a strong labor market, the Committee expects it will soon be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate,” the Fed statement read. The centralbank slashed rates to near zero in March 2020 when the pandemic took the US economy into a choke hold.
Will interest rates rise in 2021? Powell Says No Rate Hike, No Taper
Will interest rates rise in 2021? Powell Says No Rate Hike, No Taper. Investors sold U.S. dollars after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made it very clear on Tuesday that there will be no interest rate hikes or tapering in the foreseeable future.
The Argument for Negative Interest Rates in the US has Strengthened, Goldman says — But the Fed Remains Opposed
The bank said that a deep and prolonged recession would warrant negative interest rates, as asset purchases and forward guidance from the Fed would likely not “fill the gap,” unless it started to buy risky assets like stocks.
Fed says Minutes to be Released on Time as Offices Close
The U.S. Federal Reserve said minutes of its January policy meeting would be released on Wednesday as scheduled though its offices in Washington would be closed due to bad weather.
Fed’s Kashkari says Powell is ‘coming around’ to his Dovish view
Gold Silver Reports (GSR) — Fed’s Kashkari: Rate hike pause keeps U.S. growth on track — The Federal Reserve’s decision to stop raising interest rates puts a “fundamentally healthy” U.S. economy on track to further growth, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari suggested on Sunday.
If Fed’s ‘50 B’s’ Are Wrong Now, Then When Is Right?
In between tweets about Michael Flynn’s court appearance and Twitter making it hard for him to accumulate followers, President Donald Trump on Tuesday made an eye-catching remark about monetary policy: “Stop with the 50 B’s,” he told the Federal Reserve.