The Fed Holds Rates Steady

 

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Mortgage Rundown. Today we are going to talk about what’s happening with interest rates.

Well, the FOMC came and the FOMC went. Last week the Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate unchanged for a fifth straight meeting while signaling that it still expects to drop rates three times this year. There is still a lot of debate as to whether or not three will be the magic number and if that will begin in June or July.

It does appear that the market finally has acquiesced that the Fed will not deliver five or more interest rate cuts this year and hopes that this would start during Spring are also all but crushed.

One thing of interesting note is that the equity market is completely ignoring the Fed. Stock indices continuing to push higher and higher every month and it appears that market is very focused on the lack of bad news, the very likelihood of a soft landing, compounded with the fact that it has confidence the Fed will step in if there is any type of hiccup with the economy.

Today we have important data on Q4 GDP along with the GDP pricing index. And just as important, or perhaps even more important, is that tomorrow we have PCE, the Fed’s coveted inflation gauge.

That’s it everyone from the capital markets desk this week. Thank you all for watching and have a great day.