After Monday’s market turbulence, the Federal Reserve’s challenge will be to sound reassuring while acknowledging it’s preparing to make its first major step away from the easy policies it put in place to fight the pandemic.
The Fed will release a policy statement along with the economic and interest rate forecasts it issues quarterly at the end of its two-day meeting Wednesday afternoon. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to brief the media at 2:30 p.m. ET. The central bank is widely expected to indicate it is getting ready to announce it will start paring back its $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities.
“I think they’re going to lay out that they had a discussion on tapering. I don’t think they’re going to provide any details. I think they’re going to provide a framework where they can start doing it in November or December,” said Rick Rieder, chief investment officer of global fixed income at BlackRock.
The…
