Interest Rates

Fed Chair Powell says 75 bps or 50 bps hike is likely in July, setting a "flexibly hawkish" tone for near-future rate policy.

Minutes from the meeting earlier this month indicate the Fed will continue large interest rate increases in the short term, but will reconsider that strategy this fall.

Inflation is front-and-center in policymaking, but "this is not a shock-and-awe Volcker moment."

FOMC also decided to start tapering its holdings of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities by $47.5 billion per month.

The Fed splashes cold water on the idea of a shock-and-awe rate hike of 75 basis points.

Many companies do not understand the scope of their interest rate, currency, and commodity price risks. That knowledge gap has the potential to blow up corporate planning processes.

Minutes from the FOMC's March meeting indicate the Fed is "scrambling to get policy back to neutral as quickly as they can. ... to get inflation back under control."

Even dovish FOMC members are now supporting faster and larger rate hikes—likely including a half-point increase in May and a total of more than 2 percentage points in hikes before the end of 2022.