Yellen’s US Fed First FOMC To Set Tone

March 17, 2014 Share Print 0

Janet Yellen takes center stage in the week ahead, chairing her first FOMC meeting amid market skittishness over events in Ukraine.

There is little doubt the Fed will continue to move forward and announce another $10 billion “taper” of its bond-buying program, taking it to $55 billion a month.
The Fed is widely expected to take a knife to some of the language in its statement that set an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent as a level to cut rates.

“This is all about her. It’s her first meeting. It just doesn’t seem like the meeting where there’s going to be a lot of policy fireworks given it might be prudent to let things coast through again, while they all get on the same page,” said George Goncalves, Treasury strategist at Nomura Americas.

The Fed’s target of 6.5 percent for unemployment is seen by the markets as outdated and confusing, since unemployment is now at 6.7 percent. Fed officials have also called it obsolete. The Fed will also release new economic forecasts, and any talk about the economy is likely to suggest that the weather may be a major factor behind recent weak data.

via CNBC

This article is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. You could lose all of your deposited funds.

Bio
Twitter
Google+
Latest Posts

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.