Fed Raises Interest Rates Again

Americans carry more than $4 trillion – yes, TRILLION – in consumer debt, and while interest rates on the loans you now hold may not rise, new loans and any outstanding loans with variable or adjustable rates will likely see higher APRs.

Labor market strength is in stark contrast with a recent softening in consumer, construction and business spending.

The Federal Reserve voted to increase interest rates by a quarter percentage point at its March meeting.

This week the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates again. The statement has allayed fears of an accelerated rate normalisation, that could have triggered a sharp jump in outflows from emerging markets such as India.

For now, the Fed seems content to follow the plans it laid out in December.

“The White House and the Hill have far more power through legislation to influence corporate earnings than the Fed does through interest rates”, Clemons added.

Specifically, she said the FOMC’s decision sends a “simple message” to consumers that the economy is “doing well.”While I expected that Yellen’s announcement was coming and correctly predicted both the bond and stock market’s reaction, I have to say I was shocked by the hypocrisy in part of Chairman Yellen’s comments”. Yellen said she still expected to raise rates three times this year. But the number of Fed officials who think three rate hikes will be appropriate rose from six to nine. Fed members Charles Evans, William Dudley, Neel Kashkari and Robert Kaplan are all scheduled to speak this week and could use the opportunity to clarify their stance on the central bank’s rate path that triggered a drop in the Dollars after the March monetary policy meeting.

“The market has really come to view the rate hikes as actually a positive, not a negative”, says Jeff Kravetz, regional investment strategist at U.S. Bank. But conditions in the global financial system should be expected to tighten in the short to medium term as United States monetary policy has a much greater impact on the global financial markets. But rates on some other loans – notably credit cards, home equity loans and adjustable-rate mortgages – will likely rise soon, though only modestly.

Editor’s Note: For only the third time in 20 years, a metal more rare and more exotic than gold is about to make stock market history. A rise to 3.25% to 3.5% would cause more jitters. “It will be bad for the federal budget and will be bad for household and housing market as well”, he said. You do have a very easy way to counteract a rate rise – work on improving your personal and business credit scores.

Wall Street hasn’t been spooked by the prospect of Fed rate hikes.

As a result, the Fed is sticking with its policy of gradually raising interest rates, Dr Yellen said. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. The risk is that there may be more, or that the size of each hike grows.

Similarly, Donald Trump’s new administration may use government funds to stimulate the U.S. economy through additional spending, also possibly pushing up rates faster.

European stock markets gained after the Dutch election victory by Prime Minister Mark Rutte which fought off a challenge by anti-immigration, anti-European Union rival Geert Wilders.

“Waiting too long to scale back some of our support could potentially require us to raise rates rapidly sometime down the road, which in turn could risk disrupting financial markets and pushing the economy into recession”, she said. First-quarter economic growth, or GDP, is now tracking at 1.4%, down from a 2% estimate on March 1, according to Barclays.

The Swiss franc was steady after gaining about 1 per cent against the dollar the previous day.

Over time, even that scenario usually comes unglued as economies begin to overheat; inflation climbs and bankers need to become even more hawkish to subdue these animal spirits. Vehicle loans tend to be more sensitive to competition, which can slow the rate of increases, McBride noted. And the impact of higher USA interest rates on developing economies may complicate US foreign policy goals. This could occur if the fiscal stimulus introduced by Trump, at a time when the economy is near full employment, provides a big lift to growth and causes inflation to rise faster than expected.