Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has a difficult job in normal times, but given the market DJIA, -0.60% SPX, -0.70% selloff that gathered steam Monday, he seems to have an almost impossible task ahead of him.
“We doubt that Chair Powell will feel much need to make soothing noises in Wednesday’s press conference, Crandall said in a note to clients. But Powell does have a some room to assuage concerns of market participants about an aggressive Fed clamp down on the economy, said Duy of SGH Marcro Advisors. Despite all this talk of a hawkish Fed, the Fed’s projected rate path is shallow given the current level of inflation, he noted. For instance, the Fed’s dot-plot doesn’t have the central bank getting interest rates to a neutral setting by the end of 2024.
March lift-off Markets will be watching for a signal that the Fed plans to lift off in March unless something surprising happens. Derek Holt, vice-president of Scotiabank Economics, noted that that the Fed could follow the playbook set out in its October 2015 statement just before the Fed hiked for the first time in that cycle.
What is: by printing more money?