FOMC

Janet Yellen, the pro tem chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, is entering the final stretch of her time at the helm of the world’s most powerful and influential central bank. Yellen submitted her resignation Nov. 11, effective once her successor is sworn in next year. A Historic Stint...

Having already laid the groundwork with two interest rate hikes this year, the Federal Open Market Committee took an unprecedented step to tighten its monetary policy Wednesday. As expected, the FOMC confirmed it would begin to contract its sizeable balance sheet and shrink its bond portfolio in...

Recently, when Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen went up to Capitol Hill for her semi-annual monetary policy testimony, the market was caught unawares. Traders have begun to discount an environment, where the fed funds rate would continue to rise steadily and by small increments, and the incoming...

Economic health is sound enough for the market to expect the Fed to continue with its measured pace of rate increases. Therefore, when Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen sounded dovish at last week's semi-annual monetary policy testimony, it came as a surprise. The testimony, which cast a cloud of...

Macroeconomic events and releases move markets in varying degrees, with some possessing the potential to move markets in a big way, are termed as first-tier economic data. Meanwhile, there are others that are relatively inane and don't cause big swings in the market. Less market-moving...

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates earlier this week, marking the second time this year that the U.S. central bank has boosted borrowing costs. That move by the Fed has helped the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSE: UUP), widely viewed as a dud this year among developed market...

The U.S. dollar is one of this year's most disappointing developed market currencies, but that is not helping the commodities complex. Most commodities, an asset class denominated in dollars, are sagging, but some precious metals have been notable exceptions. Among exchange-traded products, the...

Next week is a Federal Reserve week with plenty of market participants expecting the Federal Open Market Committee to boost U.S. interest rates. Gold and the related exchange traded products, including the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), often come into focus during Fed weeks. What Fed Means For Gold...

In the Federal Reserve's current tightening campaign, the Federal Open Market Committee has looked into shrinking the central bank’s balance sheet. The median dealer expects the FOMC to allow the balance sheet to begin shrinking in the second quarter of 2018, according to the March survey...

The U.S. economy, which was stuttering with a "fits-and-starts" recovery following the Great Recession of 2007–2008, has now reached a state of steady, stable growth, with the pace of growth centering around a new normal rate that is lower than its historical norm. Economic Health: Far From...

Controversy has come calling at the doorstep of the Federal Reserve, with the Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker calling it quits after admitting to leaking information about the deliberations among Federal Open Market Committee members in 2012. The statement by Lacker said his...

A FOMC meeting, quadruple witching and snowstorm clouds gathering over the East coast all make a heady concoction that could drive up volatility in the markets. In market parlance, volatility is the amount of uncertainty about the magnitude of change in the value of a security. It can be calculated...

In an expected move, Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo decided to quit the position, as the Trump team has embarked on the mission of overhauling the Dodd-Frank Act, which was introduced to regulate the banking system post the financial crisis. Tarullo was overseeing the regulation of the American...

The Federal Reserve's monetary policy setting arm, or the FOMC is set to sit across the table for one last time this year to deliberate on rates. It's sure an unenviable task, given the fine line central bankers have to tread in deciding the apt course of the monetary policy. A wrong move can...

The customary Friday jobs report is close. The typical nervous anticipation ahead of the data is slowly giving way to a complacency, given the consistent robustness revealed by the data in the expansionary phase of the current economic cycle. The report due to be released by the Labor Department...