The Federal Reserve is widely expected to take a big step in the week ahead on its “expeditious march” to get its interest rate back to a more normal level.
Two weeks ago, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Mary Daly used that word – expeditious – in describing her itinerary for ending the Fed’s very accommodative interest rate policy it instituted in the early weeks of the pandemic.
The market is certain that the big step will be at least a half percent and possibly as much as three-quarters of one percent rate hike on Wednesday. If it’s the larger step, it would take the Fed’s target short-term borrowing rate highest since February 2020. And it would represent the fastest interest rate hikes in generations.
