by Calculated Risk on 5/01/2018 07:00:00 PM

From Tim Duy at Fed Watch: Set To Stay On Current Path

The Federal Open Market Committee begins their two-day meeting this morning, an effort that will almost certainly culminate with steady rates and fairly limited alterations to the accompanying FOMC statement. The underlying message is “steady as she goes.” We have yet to see data break meaningfully to either side of the Fed’s forecast such to expect a change in the pace of rate hikes. With the economic data continuing to support the broad contours of the Federal Reserve’s forecast, we should expect the Fed to remain on track to hike policy rates by 25bp each quarter for the remainder of this year.

CR Note: At some point I expect the Fed to announce a press conference after every FOMC 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 193,000 payroll jobs added in April, down from 241,000 added in March.

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