Fed leaves rates unchanged, notes slowing in business investment (2024)

In its first meeting since October's market turmoil and this week's midterm elections, the Federal Reserve voted to maintain the current level of its benchmark interest rate.

The policymaking Federal Open Market Committee, as expected, unanimously approved keeping the federal funds rate in a range of 2 percent to 2.25 percent. Markets figured the central bank would hold the line at this meeting and probably approve a quarter-point hike in December, which would be the fourth of the year.

There were a few tweaks to the way policymakers are viewing economic conditions.

On the upside, the committee noted that the unemployment rate "has declined" since the September meeting. The Labor Department last week reported that the headline jobless level was at 3.7 percent, the lowest since December 1969.

However, the statement noted that the "growth of business fixed investment has moderated from its rapid pace earlier in the year."

There was no detail or data given for why officials see investment declining, though companies reported during third-quarter earnings season that some of their investment plans have been curtailed due to the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China.

The economy otherwise has been humming along strongly, and the FOMC reiterated its belief that "economic activity has been rising at a strong rate." GDP growth this year has averaged 3.3 percent for the first three quarters and is expected to come in around 3 percent for the final three-month period of 2018.

"We shouldn't be surprised by either comment as they are simply a summary of the recent data," Michelle Meyer, U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said in a note. "Interestingly, there was no mention of the softer housing data. Moreover, there was no mention of the sell-off in the stock market in October which implies that Fed officials were largely willing to shrug it off."

Volatility has gripped financial markets since mid-October, when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell made remarks that Wall Street took as hawkish for the pace of future rate hikes.

"Interest rates are still accommodative, but we're gradually moving to a place where they will be neutral," Powell said during an interview with PBS. "We may go past neutral, but we're a long way from neutral at this point, probably."

The FOMC at its September meeting actually voted to remove the word "accommodative" from its description of the current policy path. Powell and others have said the word is no longer useful in describing how the Fed is proceeding.

Since December 2015, the central bank has approved eight quarter-point rate hikes, bringing the benchmark rate to around a 10-year high.

Powell's statements were followed by a prolonged stock market sell-off and a rise in short-term rates. The eclipsed a decade high Thursday and the benchmark 10-year note is around 3.22 percent, near its high point since 2011.

With November's expected pause in rate hikes behind it, the market now will turn its sights toward December. Traders in the fed funds futures market are implying about a 93 percent probability for a hike at the year's final meeting.

The market and the Fed differ on the path in 2019.

Fed officials at the September meeting pointed to three increases next year, but the market currently is pricing in only two. The September projections indicated at least one more hike in 2020, which the market also does not see.

The gap is significant as this week's FOMC meeting marked the last time that Powell will not have a news conference afterward. The Fed has not hiked rates during the current cycle at a meeting when the chair did not take questions afterward. Starting in January, Powell will hold a conference after each of the committee's eight meetings each year. That makes each gathering "live" in terms of its potential for a rate move — either up or down.

"A December rate hike appears to be a likely event at this point, but the outlook ahead is very different as the market and the Fed have differing views on how many rate hikes are in the cards for next year," said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management.

Along with the move Thursday to keep the benchmark rate anchored at its current level, the committee voted to maintain the rate the Fed pays on excess bank reserves at 2.2 percent.

Market participants have been watching the IOER rate, as it is used as a guide for the funds rate. The two rates are now exactly equal, and if there is an appearance that reserves are getting scarce in the banking system and driving up rates, that could cause the Fed to halt the run-off of its balance sheet.

The central bank is allowing a capped level of $50 billion in proceeds to run off each month from the portfolio of bonds it purchased during its efforts to stimulate the economy. Some market participants expect the Fed will approve a 20 basis point increase for the IOER rate in December as a way to keep the funds rate from getting too close to the top end of its range. The current 2.2 percent funds rate is just 5 basis points away from the upper bound of the range.