With the Fed likely to stand pat on rates, investors will scrutinise every detail for any deviation on policy

THE US Federal Reserve is so likely to leave interest rates unchanged this week that you can almost hear a collective yawn on Wall Street.

This time, unlike at previous high-stakes meetings, no one expects to see any surprises. The Fed will almost certainly keep the Fed-funds benchmark rate between 4.25 and 4.5 per cent at the end of its first two-day meeting of 2025 on Wednesday (Jan 29).

There isn’t expected to be any update on the rate-setting committee’s official policy outlook. As in December, Fed chairman Jerome Powell is likely to acknowledge the remarkable resilience of the US economy and the slight uptick in consumer prices, and to vow data dependence.

Still, the Fed meeting could still cause some major swings on the US stock and bond markets. 

Investors will scrutinise the Fed’s statement and Powell’s press conference for the slightest deviation from previous assessments of policy and the US economy.