Fed now likely to stand pat until next year

A plethora of recent developments mean that the Fed is unlikely to raise interest rates again until next year now, although we do expect it to announce the start of its balance sheet normalisation at next week’s FOMC meeting, which concludes on Wednesday 20th September. The plan to cease reinvesting proceeds from maturing securities in the Fed’s portfolio has been so well-flagged in advance and will be so modest to begin with, however, that it is unlikely to have any impact on financial markets.