Fed Chief Powell: Don’t Count on a Rate Cut in March!

The Federal Reserve is squashing hopes for a rate cut in March. The Federal Open Market Committee met this week and left rates where they are, but the bigger message from policymakers: There are no plans yet to cut rates.   Hi I’m Kathy Fettke and this is the Real Estate News for Investors. Please make sure you are subscribed, and when you have a minute, leave us a review and let us know how we’re doing!   This episode is a quick update on the Fed’s latest policy meeting. The committee issued a statement after the two-day meeting that eliminated wording about their willingness to keep raising rates. Instead, it said that it would now begin policy adjustment considerations. But that doesn’t mean they plan on immediately lowering rates. In fact, it said: “The Committee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent.”   Fed Chief Jerome Powell also added to that sentiment during a news conference after the meeting. He said that committee members will be waiting to see how the data plays over the next month or months, and said that a March rate cut is unlikely. He added: “I don’t think it’s likely that the committee will reach a level of confidence by the March meeting.”...   ...As for when they’d go down, the Fed never says yes or no so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens at the next meeting.   That’s it for today. If you’d like to listen to my 2024 Housing Market Predictions, you’ll find the webinar at newsforinvestors.com under the Learn tab. Economist Rick Sharga joined me for that webinar so you’ll get a double dose of forecasting and lots of data. That’s at newsforinvestors.com under the Learn tab.   And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t done so already!   Thanks for joining me here on Real Estate News for Investors.   I’m Kathy Fettke. Thanks for listening.   1 - https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/31/fed-rate-decision-january-2023.html   2 - https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/31/fed-chief-jerome-powell-says-a-march-rate-cut-is-not-likely.html   3 - https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20240131a.htm