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Federal Reserve officials, amid signs that the U.S. economy soon could shed its long period of stagnation, approved the first interest rate hike in a year Wednesday and said it foresees three more increases next year. The stock market reacted calmly, while the dollar and bond yields rose.

Is Janet Yellen trying to screw Donald Trump? No, I’m not asking for possible titles to a porn movie (“Trump Gets Janet Yellin’” or “Trump Puts Down Ol’ Yellen”). But it really does seem like the Federal Reserve Chair(wo)man is out to get the Donald. Yellen recently told Congress’s Joint Economic Committee that an interest rate hike could be imminent if “incoming data provide some further evidence of continued progress toward the committee’s objectives.” Markets have already priced in a hike of a quarter to a half of a percentage point. For now, stocks continue to reach historic highs and...

As the Federal Reserve's long-awaited December rate hike approaches, the parallels with a year ago are both striking and a bit worrying. The dollar is surging against other major currencies as the Fed gets set to tighten policy, even as other major central banks plan to keep their monetary spigots wide open for the foreseeable future. Similar circumstances triggered a bout of global financial market turmoil at the start of 2016... ...strong dollar is a negative for U.S. multinationals... ...good news is that Fed policymakers also are on guard against a repeat of the global financial market turmoil... ...IBD'S TAKE:...

Fed Chair Janet Yellen's interest in running a "high-pressure economy" threatens to add to an increasingly divisive climate at the U.S. central bank. In remarks last week that jarred the market, Yellen ruminated about the benefits of letting inflation run a little hotter than normal while allowing the unemployment rate to drop below the point that historically would trigger Fed tightening action. To many observers, the comments were a clearly dovish signal that she favors a lower-for-longer approach when it comes to interest rates. But that kind of attitude could exacerbate tensions among Federal Open Market Committee members, in particular...

If a politician said he thought he should tax the income from your retirement plan, right now, at 50% (no matter where you are in the retirement process, that would certainly hurt the ability of your portfolio to compound), what would you think (other than that he was completely Looney Tunes)? But that's exactly what the Federal Reserve has done by keeping interest rates low. It has reduced the fixed-income returns in retirement plans and the broad pension plans upon which so many people are dependent to practically nothing. And the Fed has done this to prop up asset prices....

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged Wednesday after its two-day policy meeting, as expected, and longer-term rate projections show an even slower pace of increases. Still, policymakers painted a mostly upbeat picture about the job market and overall growth and signaled that the Fed's key rate will rise before year-end. Markets have increasingly been pricing in a December hike... ...Fed's forecasts show policymakers expect three rate hikes through the end of 2017, down from five at their June meeting. The estimate for the fed funds rate in 2017 has slipped to 1.1% in 2017 from a 1.6% view in...

If you’ve noticed the prices of of everyday goods are on the rise, you’re not alone. On Friday the Labor Department announced that the core consumer price index (CPI)—which strips out volatile food and energy costs—rose 2.3% over the past 12 months, up from 1.8% one year ago. “The data help the case for Fed tightening,” writes Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics. The futures market concurs. It is indicating that the chance of a rate high at or before the Fed’s December meeting is above 50% for the first time in months. But some analysts are...

The Federal Reserve's years-long campaign to sheepishly back away from its own policy forecasts continued in earnest last week when it officially reduced the four expected 2016 quarter point hikes, suggested back in December, to just two. Given the deteriorating economic outlook, I believe there can be little doubt that the Fed will soon complete the capitulation process and remove all expectations for additional hikes this year. Even before that happens, savvy observers should have already concluded that the Federal Reserve is stuck in the monetary mud just as firmly now as it has been since the dawn of the...

The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged today and lowered its economic forecasts after a turbulent start to the year in financial markets and lackluster U.S. growth persuaded the central bank to reassess the timing and magnitude of its plan to raise rates. The Fed maintained its target for interest rates at a range of 0.25 to 0.50 percent to give the U.S. recovery more time to get on a stable track without making recovery more difficult for the rest of the world, where growth is flagging. Only one member of the Federal Reserve's open market committee dissented...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- What Fed rate hike? One week after the Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates from record lows, the average on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage went the other way: It dipped to 3.96 percent from 3.97 percent last week, mortgage giant Freddie Mac says. The drop is a reminder that the Fed has only an indirect influence on long-term mortgage rates, which more closely track the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note. And that rate, in turn, tends to stay down as long as inflation remains low and investors keep buying Treasurys. The 10-year Treasury yield has...

Federal Reserve officials are likely to raise their benchmark short-term interest rate from near zero Wednesday, expecting to slowly ratchet it higher to above 3% in three years. But that's if all goes as planned. Their big worry is they'll end up right back at zero. Any number of factors could force the Fed to reverse course and cut rates all over again: a shock to the U.S. economy from abroad, persistently low inflation, some new financial bubble bursting and slamming the economy, or lost momentum in a business cycle which, at 78 months, is already longer than 29 of...

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday pointed to a possible December interest rate "liftoff" but said rates would rise only slowly from then on to nurture the U.S. economic recovery. [...] Her remarks pushed bond yields higher and stocks lower. They also caused investors to reset their expectations of a December rate hike above 60 percent, a sign that markets are finally taking the Fed's language seriously after a period in which U.S. central bankers were frustrated by the gap between their own outlook and market bets about their likely course of action. ...

"Yes, I believe American people are intelligent enough to make decisions," said FEC chairwoman Ann Ravel. The chairwoman of the federal agency responsible for overseeing the nation's campaign finance laws has suggested that federal authorities should help Americans to make "thoughtful" political contributions. The comment came during a Thursday meeting of the Federal Election Commission. The agency was considering whether to issue an advisory decision for an organization called "Democracy Rules" that created a game-like platform for making political contributions. According to the rules of the platform, participants vote for one of a few issues in a given category, like...

“Let me assure you, if the revenue environment weakens or interest-rate structures don’t move up, and the economy slows down, we’ll have to take out more costs,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said on Thursday at the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference. And that would mean more job cuts.BofA is famous for whittling down its headcount in recent years. In Moynihan’s 25-slide presentation, there was this chart that shows just how skillfully he has trimmed down his workforce, chopping it by 25% overall since the second quarter of 2011:Wolf Street So if, as he said, “interest-rate structures don’t move...

Markets sold off sharply this summer over concerns about a slowdown in China and weak world growth, leaving Fed officials to vet whether that reflected a short-term correction or more fundamental problems on the horizon. "Financial markets tend to wax and wane, sometimes suddenly. Monetary policy needs to be more stable," said Bullard, who in prepared remarks here to the Community Bankers Association of Illinois said he did not think the Fed "provided a satisfactory answer" to why rates should stay near zero. The economy is near full employment, and inflation will almost certainly rise, Bullard said, leaving the Fed's...

Yellen has inherited a complete nightmare. Thursday’s decision to delay yet again the long-awaited liftoff from zero interest rates is illustrating that the world economy is totally screwed. There is a lot of speculation about why the Fed seems so reluctant to “normalize monetary policy”. There are of course the typical domestic issues that there is low inflation, weak wage gains in the face of strong job growth, a hike will increase the Federal deficit and then there is the argument that corporations that now have $12.5 trillion in debt. All that is nice, but with corporate debt, our clients...

Yellen has inherited a complete nightmare. Thursday’s decision to delay yet again the long-awaited liftoff from zero interest rates is illustrating that the world economy is totally screwed. There is a lot of speculation about why the Fed seems so reluctant to “normalize monetary policy”. There are of course the typical domestic issues that there is low inflation, weak wage gains in the face of strong job growth, a hike will increase the Federal deficit and then there is the argument that corporations that now have $12.5 trillion in debt. All that is nice, but with corporate debt, our clients...

U.S. stocks sank Friday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down for the week, as Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged fueled fears about global economic growth. The central bank cited concerns about the global economy and a lack of inflation growth in its Thursday decision to leave interest rates unchanged. “Many are confused by the outcome of the recent Fed meeting,” said Kent Engelke, chief economic strategist at Capitol Securities Management. “Markets hate confusion and lack of clarity.” The S&P 500 skidded 32.16 points, or 1.6%, to close at 1,958.08 for a...

Global debt levels are dangerously high and central banks cannot keep the game going indefinitely, warns the high priest of orthodoxy Debt ratios have reached extreme levels across all major regions of the global economy, leaving the financial system acutely vulnerable to monetary tightening by the US Federal Reserve, the world's top financial watchdog has warned. The Bank for International Settlements said the wild market ructions of recent weeks and capital outflows from China are warning signs that the massive build-up in credit is coming back to haunt, compounded by worries that policymakers may be struggling to control events. "We...

U.S. equity markets were lower Monday morning as traders anxiously awaited this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting. As of 9:50 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 81 points, or 0.50% to 16350. The S&P 500 shed 8 points, or 0.45% to 1952, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 16 points, or 0.33% to 4806. Today’s Markets Wall Street waited with bated breath for the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s two-day, policy-setting meeting this week, which begins Wednesday and ends with a statement on monetary policy the day after. In recent weeks, forecasts for a September rate hike have...