Chefen for den amerikanske centralbank ventes at give en positiv vurdering af amerikansk økonomi under det kommende møde med Kongressen. Renteniveauet er passende for at bevare den nuværende fremgang.
Uddrag fra Fidelity/Reuters:
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is likely to sound fairly upbeat about the outlook for U.S. economic growth when he testifies this week in the first of his twice-a-year updates to Congress, even as he nods to the potential threat from the coronavirus in China.
That assessment would echo the formal report the Fed submitted to the U.S. Congress on Friday, which repeated the central bank’s view that its current target range for short-term borrowing costs, between 1.5% and 1.75%, is “appropriate” to keep the expansion on track.
With risks like trade policy uncertainty receding, Powell has signaled he sees no reason to adjust U.S. interest rates unless there is a “material” change to the current outlook.
That’s a view he is likely to reiterate when he presents the Fed’s monetary policy report on Tuesday to the House Financial Services Committee and on Wednesday to the Senate Banking Committee.
“His message will probably be that, if rate cuts are coming, they would come solely in response to global disruptions associated with the virus,” said Robert Perli, an economist at Cornerstone Macro. “He will likely say clearly that the U.S. economy is inherently healthy.”
Investors will be watching carefully for any new details on the Fed’s plans for its balance sheet and for the short-term funding markets into which it has been pumping liquidity to prevent a repeat of an unexpected spike in the policy rate last fall.
