What to expect from the Federal Reserve's meeting this week

foxbusiness.com:

Panelists Yelena Shulyatyeva and JC Parets react to the inflation report on 'The Claman Countdown.'

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged on Wednesday even as central bankers confront a surprisingly resilient economy and still too-high inflation.

But Wall Street is even more focused on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET as they look for additional clues about whether the Fed is done raising rates, or if there is another increase in the pipeline.

Powell is likely to leave the door open to at least one more rate hike this year, though he will almost certainly insist that it depends on upcoming economic data releases – a message similar to the one he delivered earlier in October.

FED'S POWELL WARNS SLOWER ECONOMIC GROWTH MAY BE NEEDED TO COOL HIGH INFLATION

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Sept. 20, 2023, at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. ((Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) / Getty Images)

«Powell will likely stress that given the broad set of new and old uncertainties, the Fed can ‘proceed carefully’ in balancing the risk of tightening monetary policy too much against the risk of tightening too little,» said Gregory Daco, EY chief economist. «But he will make sure to reiterate that it’ll take more than a few months of good data to give policymakers the confidence that inflation is moving toward the 2% target in a sustainable manner.»

Fed officials have already raised interest rates to a range of 5.25% to 5.5% – the highest level in 22 years – in a bid to crush inflation. Although prices have fallen from a peak of 9.1%, they remain above both the pre-pandemic