Wednesday: FOMC Announcement

Here is a Review of FOMC Projections

And a few excerpts from a piece by Goldman Sachs economists Zach Pandl and Jan Hatzius: FOMC Preview: How Much Is Really a-Changin?

[W]e now see very low chances of a rate increase ... By our count, seven FOMC participants would prefer to raise the funds rate next week, and two seem to be leaning that way. In these situations, the FOMC will often use the post-meeting statement to help forge a compromise. We should therefore expect a more hawkish tone in the statement and press conference.

While we expect some tough talk, our best guess is that the statement will be sufficiently noncommittal to keep markets unsure about the prospects of a rate hike this year—in part because the timing of the November meeting limits the committee’s ability to provide very strong signals. Shifting to a “nearly balanced” risk assessment could keep markets on notice, but this phrasing has been absent since December, possibly reflecting Chair Yellen’s own preferences. It’s a close call, but we think the committee will probably use different language.

In the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP), we look for lower GDP growth for this year and a reduction in the longer-run estimate. Projections for unemployment and core inflation will likely be unchanged. Reflecting the discussion among policymakers about low equilibrium rates, we expect the “dot plot” to show a slower pace of funds rate increases over the coming years, with the 2017 and 2018 median dots falling by 50bp—though this is also a close call.

Wednesday:
• At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

• During the day, The AIA's Architecture Billings Index for August (a leading indicator for commercial real estate).

• At 2:00 PM, the FOMC Meeting Announcement. No change to the Fed Funds rate is expected at this meeting.

• Also at 2:00 PM, FOMC Forecasts This will include the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) participants' projections of the appropriate target federal funds rate along with the quarterly economic projections.

• At 2:30 PM, Fed Chair Janet Yellen holds a press briefing following the FOMC announcement.

from
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