NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve, signaling its inflation target has been met, on Wednesday said it would end its pandemic-era bond purchases in March, paving the way for three quarter-percentage-point interest rate increases by the end of 2022.
In new economic projections released following the end of a two-day policy meeting, officials forecast that inflation would run at 2.6% next year, compared to the 2.2% projected as of September, and the unemployment rate would fall to 3.5%.
As a result, officials at the median projected the Fed’s benchmark overnight interest rate would need to rise from its current near-zero level to 0.90% by the end of 2022, with continued increases in 2023 to 1.6% and in 2024 to 2.1% required to pull inflation back to the central bank’s 2% target.
STORY:
STATEMENT:
ECONOMIC FORECASTS
MARKET REACTION:
STOCKS: The S&P 500 turned positive and was last up 0.05%
BONDS: The 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield rose to 1.4633%, and the 2-year yield rose to 0.7014%; The 2s/10s yield curve flattened to 75.90 basis points
FOREX: The dollar index added to gains and was 0.3% firmer
COMMENTS:
ERIC THEORET, GLOBAL MACRO STRATEGIST, MANULIFE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, BOSTON
“The new kind of withdrawal of stimulus should support a flatter curve, lower yields generally and an environment that would favor growth stocks over value stocks.”
“The fact that the taper has been accelerated, it reduces that inflationary impulse. And so even though they’re actually speaking to higher rates, ultimately by the time we get to zero balance sheet expansion at the end of March is going to be a very different outlook for interest rates because this is an economy that’s not going to be getting that stimulus.”
“It’s that withdrawal of liquidity that actually makes the rates even lower and actually favor stocks, like the tech sector, and like utilities that definitely tend to benefit from a lower yield environment.”
“The taper is actually going to be sufficient to stop the inflation and they actually probably won’t need to hike as much as they say they do.”
ELLEN HAZEN, PORTFOLIO MANAGER, F.L.PUTNAM INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, WELLESLEY, MASSACHUSETTS
“The stock market is not doing a whole lot if you look at the S&P 500, it has gone up a little bit but not too much. The market has already assumed, had already priced in since Chairman Powell’s congressional testimony a couple of weeks ago the doubling of the taper speed as well as the expectation that the dot plots would rise. We don’t have a lot of surprises in terms of the taper speed or the softening of the language around how transitory inflation might be and how it is no longer limited to certain sectors as it was in the previous statement.”
“You are seeing the yield curve flatten a little bit and that is also to be expected. The real question will be how he phrases it in the press conference rather than in the statement itself. It really matters whether or not he talks about it primarily in terms of inflation, primarily in terms of unemployment, or primarily in terms of labor force participation. I don’t know that you can draw conclusions from the statement itself, it is fairly silent on those matters.”
GREGORY DACO, CHIEF U.S. ECONOMIST, OXFORD ECONOMICS, NEW YORK
“It’s hawkish, but it’s not more hawkish than anticipated. The doubling of the QE was largely expected. The transitory word has been banished. The labor market is making substantial progress.”
“It seems like they are really putting the focus on inflation and positioning themselves in a way that they could, over the next few months, proceed with rate liftoff.”
“It’s largely in line with market expectations. Markets are perhaps a little bit more hawkish than that. But, I think it’s a fairly balanced view in terms of the outlook so from a markets perspective I don’t think it should trigger a massive tightening of financial conditions. The outlook in terms of growth is a little bit stronger for next year, but weaker in the medium run. So it probably points towards a bit of a potential further flattening of the yield curve going out.”
RANDY FREDERICK, VICE PRESIDENT OF TRADING AND DERIVATIVES, CHARLES SCHWAB, AUSTIN, TEXAS
“I think it is a little aggressive… my expectation has always been that we are probably going to get one or two (hikes) and the first one probably does not happen ’til mid year,”
“It cements the fact that they recognize that inflation is not transitory. It gets the Fed in line with where everybody else has already been.”
RYAN DETRICK, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, LPL FINANCIAL, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
“The Fed didn’t throw any curve balls. This is widely as expected. One positive, is they see inflation at 2.6% next year, so the Fed sees inflation coming down. That could be because as much as three rate hikes next year could potentially put a lid on inflation.”
“From the headline, there are no major surprises. As we speak the S&P and the Dow are turning green. The Q&A is what we’ll focus on next but the market seems to be taking things in stride. It didn’t surprise anyone.”
“Powell painted this picture two weeks ago when he spoke in front of congress and potentially calmed the fears over tapering. And today did little to change that narrative.”
“(This week’s sell-off) was a combination of consolidating gains from the week before but also some skittishness ahead of what was potentially the last major market event of this year.”
“The rest of the year should be fairly quiet. It’s a nice feeling to get past this major event as we head into what is widely known as the ‘Santa Claus rally,’ historical strength late in the month of December.”
PAUL NOLTE, PORTFOLIO MANAGER, KINGSVIEW INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, CHICAGO
“It’s a little bit more aggressive than I think Powell talked about in front of Congress. The part that’s not a surprise is the Fed is going to increase the pace at which they take away the bond purchases… (The market) is very volatile and will be volatile through tomorrow, as investors try to figure what is supposed to happen or what’s going to happen next.”
(Compiled by the U.S. Finance & Markets Breaking News team)
