A preview of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday 18 March 2015

Via Deutsche Bank. they say:

  • The Federal Reserve's FOMC is "expected to alter its forward guidance language so as to allow the Committee the flexibility to raise interest rates sometime around the middle of this year
  • Possibly as early as June
  • This could mean removing "patient" from the meeting statement"

The Fed will also release updated economic and financial projections

  • These "should indicate a more confident outlook for the labor market
  • although this will likely coincide with more tepidnear-term inflation forecasts"

More:

  • "The diminished outlook for inflation may also be reflected in the Fed's "dot plot"
  • We expect these to show "a lower median forecast for interest rates in 2015
  • The interesting question will be the path thereafter, and whether or not the dot sbecome more clustered around the previous median forecasts for 2016 and 2017

In the post-meeting press conference, Fed Chair Janet Yellen:

  • "Will likely elaborate on the FOMC's rationale for beginning the process of policy normalization
  • May provide more details on the FOMC's reaction function for rate hiking with respect to incoming economic data."

-

Note, I highlighted policy normalization ... Ladies and gentlemen, this is what its all about. Don't get distracted. US rate hikes are coming in June or soon thereafter.

-

Earlier:

CIBC preview of the FOMC this week: Federal Reserve "will drop" patience

FOMC Preview - The word according to Barclays, and that word will not be "patience"