The Schedule For The Remaining 2022 Fed Decisions And What The Market Expects From Them
Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, arrives to speak during a news conference … following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington, D.C., US, on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. The Fed has two remaining meetings scheduled in 2022 to set interest rates. Here’s what the market expects. Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg
At its past three meetings, the Fed has consistently raised rates 0.75 percentage points. With the Feds September decision made, there are now two monetary policy decisions left in 2022. These rate decisions are scheduled for November 2 and December 14. The Fed is free to set rates whenever it chooses, but typically sticks to the meeting schedule, unless the economic news is extreme.
Its unlikely either meeting will be much of a surprise to markets with a rate increase expected at both, likely ending the year around the middle of the 4% to 5% range for short-term rates. Still, comments about potential directions for 2023 will be closely watched, especially with an update to Feds economic projections and a press conference accompanying Decembers scheduled rate decision.
What Does The Rate Hike Mean
A rate hike is really an increase in the Fed’s short-term benchmark fed funds rate, or the target range for the rate at which commercial banks borrow and lend their excess reserves to each other overnight.
Consumer rates tend to track the fed funds rate in a ripple effect. If the federal funds rate is rising, banks might pass on additional interest costs in the form of higher interest rates on consumer and other borrowing, but also increase the rates they pay their depositors.
That means the cost of debt servicing will rise for both consumers and businesses, and savers should see a small boost in the interest rate for their deposits.
–Medora Lee
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Implementation Note Issued September 21 2022
The Federal Reserve has made the following decisions to implement the monetary policy stance announced by the Federal Open Market Committee in its statement on September 21, 2022:
This information will be updated as appropriate to reflect decisions of the Federal Open Market Committee or the Board of Governors regarding details of the Federal Reserve’s operational tools and approach used to implement monetary policy.
More information regarding open market operations and reinvestments may be found on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s website.
Board of Governorsof theFederal Reserve System
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How We Got Here: Fed Funds Rate Hikes In 2022
The FOMC has raised rates at a breakneck pace in 2022.
The current target rate of 3% to 3.25% is 300 basis points higher than it was at the beginning of the year. The gap is likely to increase to 375 basis points after the November meeting.
Economists polled by Reuters expect another rate hike from the next FOMC meeting on Dec. 13 and 14. The consensus is for a 50-basis point increase in December rather than 75.
If it pans out, that marks the beginning of the long-awaited Fed pivot. But hotter-than-expected inflation readings or job growth numbers between now and then could keep the Fed in its 75-points-per-meeting groove through the end of 2022.
| Meeting Date |
| +50* |
*Expected
The rapid increase comes after two years of rock-bottom interest rates. The Fed slashed rates by 150 basis points between February and April 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic pummeled the economy. They stayed near zero through 2021.
Will The Unemployment Rate Go Up
The unemployment rate in the US is expected to rise over the next year. Right now, unemployment sits at 3.5%, according to the BLS, but the Fed anticipates unemployment to hit 4.4% in 2023, as noted in its Summary of Economic Projections.
Historically, pushing rates too quickly can reduce consumer demand too much and unduly stifle economic growth, leading businesses to lay off workers or stop hiring. That often drives up unemployment, leading to another problem for the Fed, as it’s also tasked with maintaining maximum employment.
In a general sense, inflation and unemployment have an inverse relationship. When more people are working, they have the means to spend, leading to an increase in demand and elevated prices. However, when inflation is low, joblessness tends to be higher. But with prices remaining sky-high, many investors are increasingly worried about a coming period of stagflation, the toxic combination of slow economic growth with high unemployment and inflation.
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Feds Monetary Policy Over The Years
In 2018, two years before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Fed had four rate hikes in March, June, September and with a quarter-point increase each, bringing its benchmark rate range to 2.25% to 2.50% by the end of the year.
The Fed loosened its monetary policy the following year by reducing the benchmark interest rate three times. The cuts lowered the Federal funds rate to 1.50% in October 2019, from 2.50% in January 2019. The Fed kept the rate band at 1.50% until Covid-19 emerged in the US in March 2020.
In March 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, the FOMC held two emergency meetings to cut the rate and help the economy to weather the pandemic-induced crisis.
On 3 March 2020, the committee lowered the benchmark rate by 50bps to bring it to a target range of 1% to 1.25%. In the second emergency meeting on 14-15 March 2020, the Fed slashed the rate by 100bps to bring it close to zero until the first quarter of 2022.
Since the beginning of 2022, the Fed had signalled aggressive rate hikes as part of its tightening monetary policy to combat rising inflation. The Fed hiked rates by 25bps to 0.50% in March 2022 amid rising inflation. Its the first Federal Reserve interest rates hike since 2018.
The Fed raised the funds rate by 50bps in May, despite inflation slowing from 8.5% in March to 8.3% in April.
In July, Fed Reserve rate had another 75bps hike against market speculations of a 100bps interest rate increase to tame inflation that rose to a 40-year high of 9.1% in June.
Your Personal Finance Playbook: What To Do As Interest Rates Rise
The negatives of higher interest rates outweigh the positives, but its not all bad. Do these things now to protect yourself and make your money work harder.
- Move to a High-Yield Savings Account. After the Nov. 2 hike, the most generous savings accounts will yield 3% or better. Thats much lower than the inflation rate, but its better than traditional big banks paltry savings yields, which havent budged during this hiking cycle. Move your money if you havent already.
- Pay Off Your Credit Card Balances. You should never carry a credit card balance if you can avoid it, but its especially painful when interest rates are high. Make a plan to pay off your existing balances as soon as you can. If you need help, work with a nonprofit .
- Buy Series I Bonds Before May 2023. Theyre your best bet to fight inflation, better than any savings account. Rates reset twice per year, on Nov. 1 and May 1. With inflation probably at its peak, the May 1 rate is likely to be lower than the current 6.89% rate, which is already down from 9.62% earlier this year.
- Buy a New Car Sooner Than Later. Auto loans are a weird bright spot for consumers so far this hiking cycle. Dealer financing rates havent increased much since 2021 as car dealers fight softening demand for new cars while undercutting banks and credit unions that also offer auto loans.
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How The Fed Rate Hike Could Affect Your Refinance Plans
Mortgage refinancing works by essentially paying off your current mortgage with a new mortgage basically trading in the old for the new which may come with a new interest rate, term and/or loan amount. If the interest rate on your mortgage is lower than current rates, you may end up getting a higher interest rate when you refinance, and your monthly payment may go up. However, there are still reasons to refinance.
People have different goals for refinancing. Some refinance to use some of the equity in their homes, while others refinance to change their interest rate or the length of their loan. When rates dropped to historic lows in 2020 and 2021, many people refinanced their loans to get a lower interest rate.
While rates are higher now, some people may still be able to benefit from a refinance. If their rate is higher than todays mortgage rates, now could be the time to refinance to a lower rate. And since home values have recently skyrocketed, homeowners may have more equity in their homes at the moment, which means they may be able to take more cash out. If you have equity in your home and are wondering if this is the right move to make, use a cash-out refinance calculator to see how it can benefit you.
If youre seriously considering a refinance, talk to your lender to see if its smart to refinance now.
Fed Funds Rate History
The charts below show the targeted fed funds rate changes since 1971. The Federal Open Market Committee didn’t announce its target interest rate after meetings until October 1979. The Fed adjusted the rate through its open market operations. Banks were forced to guess what the rates would be as a result. The Fed tried to fight inflation without managing the expectations of inflation.
The Fed began targeting the money supply to fight inflation in 1979. The fed funds rate fluctuated a great deal between 1979 and 1982 as a result. Then in 1982, the Fed returned to targeting the fed funds rate.
The FOMC formally announced its policy changes for the first time in February 1994. Its announcements since then have made clear what it wants the interest rate to be. This policy manages expectations of inflation and minimizes disruptions caused by surprises from the Fed.
These are the target fed funds rates, along with the events that triggered the changes in cases where they did so. The Fed typically announces a range for its benchmark rate. The tables below show the high end of the range, while the low end is a quarter point lower. Each year also includes:
- The gross domestic product
- The unemployment rate
- The inflation rate
- The gross domestic product
- The unemployment rate
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Next Year Is When You Could Start To Feel All The Effects Of The Feds Rate Hikes
The projections are important for more than just rate guidance: They also give Fed officials an opportunity to update consumers and investors on their expectations for the unemployment rate, inflation and economic growth in the years ahead.
Economists say it takes months, if not a full year, for rate hikes to fully filter through the economy. That means 2023 might be when consumers feel the pinch of higher rates beyond just surging home-buying costs or savings yields.
The New York Feds Williams also said hes now expecting unemployment to rise to somewhere between 4.5-5 percent next year, up from an earlier forecast of near 4.5 percent. He also projects inflation could fall to between 3-3.5 percent by the end of next year.
The median forecast among officials in the Feds September projections put 2023s unemployment rate at 4.4 percent. The Feds preferred inflation gauge was seen as falling to 2.8 percent from its current level of 6 percent, while price increases excluding food and energy were projected to hit 3.1 percent from their current 5 percent reading.
Fed Set To Deliver Another Big Rate Hike Debate December Downshift
With the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation running at more than three times its 2% target, the outcome of the central bank’s policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday is not in doubt: it will raise rates by three quarters of a percentage point for the fourth straight time, bringing the target overnight lending rate to a 3.75%-4.00% range.
But what’s next is less clear.
After the last meeting, in September, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that “at some point” it will be appropriate to slow the pace of rate hikes and take stock of how the sharpest rise in borrowing costs in 40 years is affecting the economy.
Defining that point, or at least its parameters, will be the subject of intense discussion at this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
Do price pressures need to ease convincingly first?
Or is the bar simply that inflation needs to stop getting worse, even if it takes time to actually get better?
How will a looming recession in Europe, a slowdown in China, and rising global commodity prices stoked by the war in Ukraine impact the U.S. outlook for inflation?
How to account for the lagging effect of rising U.S. rates, which are slowing the housing market dramatically but have yet to bite into the broader economy or lift the unemployment rate, currently at 3.5%?
But economic data since that meeting has been mixed, with U.S. inflation still searingly hot but some signs that household spending and job growth are easing.
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The Fomcs November 2022 Meeting: What To Expect
The vast majority of economists polled by Reuters this month expected the FOMC to raise the federal funds rate by 75 basis points. Itll be the fourth 75-point increase since June.
average return of 397%
Theres not much suspense around the rate hike announcement itself. The market would be shocked by anything less than a 75-point increase.
But at Powells post-announcement press conference, hell answer questions from financial journalists desperate for insight into the FOMCs thinking. And if past is prologue, his answers could precipitate a new round of market volatility.
We wont be in attendance, but wed ask him these four questions if we could.
Asset Purchase Programme And Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme
The Governing Council intends to continue reinvesting, in full, the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the APP for an extended period of time past the date when it started raising the key ECB interest rates and, in any case, for as long as necessary to maintain ample liquidity conditions and an appropriate monetary policy stance.
As concerns the PEPP, the Governing Council intends to reinvest the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the programme until at least the end of 2024. In any case, the future roll-off of the PEPP portfolio will be managed to avoid interference with the appropriate monetary policy stance.
The Governing Council will continue applying flexibility in reinvesting redemptions coming due in the PEPP portfolio, with a view to countering risks to the monetary policy transmission mechanism related to the pandemic.
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How The Fed Rate Hike Affects Mortgage Rates
As you can see, the Federal Reserves influence on mortgage rates can be significant. It sets the federal funds rate, which is the interest rate lending institutions pay to borrow money. If it costs lenders more to borrow money to lend, then they, in turn, must charge more for their customers to borrow from them. This causes interest rates on loans, including mortgages, to go up.
Keep in mind, too, that there are other factors that influence mortgage rates and that not everyone will get the same rate. Credit score, loan amount, down payment, loan term and loan type will all influence an individuals mortgage interest rate.
How The Overnight Rate Works
Think of the banks as a group of friends. The banks don’t like to hold cash and like to lend out their money whenever they can. Sometimes, Bank A might have a lot of cash on its hands while Bank B might have less. Since they’re friends, Bank A is more than happy to lend money to Bank B. But they’re banks, so they don’t want to lend their money out for free. So they charge an interest rate.
Everyday, the banks come together and make offers to borrow and lend money. The rate that they settle on is called the “overnight rate” because it’s the interest rate for borrowing cash “overnight”. The Bank of Canada is the “mom” of the group. The Bank of Canada has a “target overnight rate” and tries to keep the overnight rate close to the target. If the rate gets too low because there’s too much money, the banks can lend their money to the Bank of Canada instead. If the rate gets too high because there’s a shortage of money, the Bank of Canada acts as a “lender of last resort” and will lend out money.
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What Will The Fed Consider
Its important to know what The Fed considers when they meet to discuss interest rates and strategy. As a reminder, The Fed originally didnt respond with any new policies when inflation started creeping up in the spring of 2021, as they attributed the price increase to pandemic-related factors. Since they felt inflation was transitory, they didnt respond with any rate hikes until March 2022. Some experts were worried that this delayed response might have consequences.
The Fed will look at the consumer price index , labor reports, producer price index, consumer sentiment index, retail sales data and other data reporting this week on the economic calendar to assess the impact of the last rate hike in July and make a final decision for Septembers expected rate hike. Consumer spending and labor reports are critical considerations because the central bank doesnt want to bring the economy into a recession by increasing unemployment while inflation soars.
Their goal is to reduce the impact of rate hikes on labor reports. With many people working and making money, its unlikely that another rate increase would bring us into a recession. The Fed will therefore be more confident about increasing rates since the labor market is strong, showing robust hiring data.
Consumer spending has also remained strong, with economists expecting a 0.2% increase in the CPI at the September announcement.
