The Federal Reserve Board concludes its two-day July meeting today with an announcement on interest rates early afternoon. A week ago today, the CME FedWatch tool showed an 80 percent chance the Fed would leave interest rates unchanged. We know what’s happened to crude oil in the past seven days, one of several factors the Board considers when looking at controlling inflation.
The most current CME FedWatch update as of today shows that that 80 percent chance has now dropped to 62 percent, and now showing a 38 percent chance the Fed will raise rates by at least a quarter point. This is the bottom-line report. The Fed Board does not meet in August, so any rate change today will not be reassessed until September 16th.
That’s our bottom line at midweek.
Audio Reporting by Mark Oppold for Southeast AgNet.