by Calculated Risk on 5/02/2017 06:26:00 PM

A few excerpts from an FOMC preview by Goldman Sachs economist Spencer Hill:

• We expect the FOMC to keep policy unchanged next week and see only limited changes to the statement.

• Similar to the March statement, we expect constructive comments on economic activity, as we think Fed officials will view the slowdown in reported growth last quarter as temporary in nature ...We do expect a brief acknowledgement of the softer March core inflation data ...
...
• We look for the balance of risk assessment and the characterization of current policy (“accommodative”) to remain unchanged. We also believe the statement will probably leave out any explicit mention of fiscal policy, given the lack of incremental clarity on the legislative outlook since the March meeting.

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

• At 8:15 AM, The ADP Employment Report for April. This report is for private payrolls only (no government). The consensus is for 170,000 payroll jobs added in April, down from 263,000 added in March.

• At 10:00 AM, the ISM non-Manufacturing Index for April. The consensus is for index to increase to 55.8 from 55.2 in March.

• At 2:00 PM, FOMC Meeting Announcement. No change to policy is expected at this meeting.