FOMC Preview
December 19, 2018
It’s been a very eventful period in the market during the 6-week FOMC cycle since the early November policy meeting, but notably the dollar only slipped 0.25% against the euro on balance. Outside of this oasis of stability, however, the ten-year Treasury yield is now 42 basis points lower than then, and the Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 equity indices have declined by 8.9% and 8.7%. Even more dramatic, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil plunged 21.8%. Rounding out market vital signs, dollar/yen is 1.5% lower, gold is 2.9% stronger, and an 11-basis point 5-year over 2-year Treasury yield spread on November 8th has now flat-lined.
Today’s final FOMC meeting of 2018 will include newly updated macroeconomic forecasts and a dot-plot chart of the favored future interest rate paths of the individuals on the committee. In September, the FOMC bumped projected GDP growth for 2018 and 2019 both higher to 3.1% and 2.5%, respectively, but lowered the total PCE price deflator forecast for 2019 by 0.1 percentage point to 2.0%. The median forecast regarding the federal funds target implied one more rate hike in 2018 (in December) as well as three hikes of 25 basis points during 2019.
Despite a deteriorated U.S. and global economic outlook lately and considerable criticism of Fed rate normalization by the White House, analysts expect the fourth increase of 2018 to be announced today at 18:00 GMT. But the macroeconomic forecast revisions, forward guidance in the statement, and the remarks of Chairman Powell at his ensuing press conference offer opportunities for the Fed to modify expectations about policy next year toward a more cautious and pro-growth view. The table below shows U.S. vital market signs at the release time of previous FOMC statements since mid-2004.
EUR/$ | $/JPY | 10Y, % | DJIA | Oil, $ | |
06/30/04 | 1.2173 | 109.44 | 4.63 | 10396 | 37.95 |
06/30/05 | 1.2090 | 110.89 | 3.96 | 10370 | 57.00 |
06/29/06 | 1.2527 | 116.07 | 5.20 | 11077 | 73.41 |
06/28/07 | 1.3452 | 123.17 | 5.10 | 13456 | 69.82 |
08/07/07 | 1.3749 | 118.55 | 4.73 | 13510 | 72.27 |
09/18/07 | 1.3888 | 115.75 | 4.51 | 13475 | 81.42 |
10/31/07 | 1.4458 | 115.28 | 4.42 | 13873 | 93.59 |
12/11/07 | 1.4682 | 111.49 | 4.11 | 13645 | 89.78 |
01/30/08 | 1.4792 | 107.31 | 3.70 | 12454 | 91.70 |
03/18/08 | 1.5786 | 98.73 | 3.41 | 12257 | 107.53 |
04/30/08 | 1.5562 | 104.58 | 3.83 | 12953 | 111.54 |
06/25/08 | 1.5568 | 108.37 | 4.18 | 11837 | 133.62 |
08/05/08 | 1.5445 | 108.42 | 3.97 | 11484 | 119.82 |
09/16/08 | 1.4144 | 105.16 | 3.36 | 10936 | 91.18 |
10/08/08 | 1.3625 | 99.87 | 3.50 | 9447 | 87.02 |
10/29/08 | 1.2933 | 97.15 | 3.81 | 9145 | 67.38 |
12/16/08 | 1.3790 | 90.14 | 2.52 | 8687 | 44.14 |
01/28/09 | 1.3253 | 90.01 | 2.61 | 8356 | 42.92 |
03/18/09 | 1.3115 | 98.13 | 2.94 | 7340 | 47.73 |
04/29/09 | 1.3331 | 97.06 | 3.02 | 8194 | 51.05 |
06/24/09 | 1.3984 | 95.43 | 3.59 | 8373 | 68.76 |
08/12/09 | 1.4221 | 96.17 | 3.71 | 9366 | 70.64 |
09/23/09 | 1.4779 | 91.50 | 3.50 | 9859 | 69.13 |
11/04/09 | 1.4884 | 90.75 | 3.51 | 9896 | 80.66 |
12/16/09 | 1.4542 | 89.78 | 3.56 | 10478 | 73.14 |
01/27/10 | 1.4045 | 89.49 | 3.61 | 10148 | 73.31 |
03/16/10 | 1.3756 | 90.64 | 3.67 | 10645 | 81.45 |
04/28/10 | 1.3157 | 94.10 | 3.75 | 11043 | 82.57 |
06/23/10 | 1.2284 | 90.12 | 3.13 | 10307 | 76.50 |
08/10/10 | 1.3107 | 85.85 | 2.81 | 10605 | 79.94 |
09/21/10 | 1.3132 | 85.21 | 2.66 | 10747 | 73.05 |
11/03/10 | 1.4059 | 81.35 | 2.53 | 11174 | 84.59 |
12/14/10 | 1.3423 | 83.37 | 3.38 | 11497 | 88.47 |
01/26/11 | 1.3658 | 82.55 | 3.41 | 12001 | 87.36 |
03/15/11 | 1.3969 | 81.04 | 3.29 | 11815 | 98.09 |
04/27/11 | 1.4665 | 82.63 | 3.36 | 12612 | 112.48 |
06/22/11 | 1.4392 | 80.12 | 2.97 | 12175 | 94.87 |
08/09/11 | 1.4234 | 77.09 | 2.36 | 10993 | 81.76 |
09/21/11 | 1.3778 | 76.34 | 1.93 | 11377 | 86.74 |
11/02/11 | 1.3724 | 78.11 | 2.03 | 11805 | 92.77 |
12/13/11 | 1.3067 | 77.92 | 1.98 | 12130 | 100.20 |
01/25/12 | 1.3027 | 77.96 | 1.97 | 12670 | 98.85 |
03/13/12 | 1.3096 | 82.76 | 2.08 | 13044 | 106.34 |
04/25/12 | 1.3226 | 81.37 | 1.97 | 13096 | 104.13 |
06/20/12 | 1.2693 | 79.28 | 1.66 | 12837 | 83.63 |
08/01/12 | 1.2300 | 78.10 | 1.49 | 13028 | 88.98 |
09/13/12 | 1.2895 | 77.43 | 1.72 | 13342 | 97.60 |
10/24/12 | 1.2948 | 79.75 | 1.77 | 13115 | 85.72 |
12/12/12 | 1.3082 | 83.24 | 1.70 | 13325 | 87.13 |
01/30/13 | 1.3584 | 91.16 | 2.02 | 13949 | 97.63 |
03/20/13 | 1.2948 | 95.65 | 1.94 | 14497 | 92.82 |
05/01/13 | 1.3195 | 97.48 | 1.62 | 14740 | 90.47 |
06/19/13 | 1.3364 | 95.76 | 2.23 | 15304 | 98.38 |
07/31/13 | 1.3301 | 97.92 | 2.67 | 15565 | 105.63 |
09/18/13 | 1.3363 | 98.28 | 2.76 | 15606 | 107.01 |
10/30/13 | 1.3764 | 98.18 | 2.48 | 15660 | 97.42 |
12/18/13 | 1.3696 | 103.81 | 2.89 | 16198 | 98.06 |
01/29/14 | 1.3651 | 102.13 | 2.73 | 15719 | 97.23 |
03/19/14 | 1.3918 | 101.75 | 2.71 | 16335 | 99.96 |
04/30/14 | 1.3868 | 102.11 | 2.66 | 16553 | 99.52 |
06/18/14 | 1.3584 | 101.93 | 2.61 | 16892 | 106.12 |
07/30/14 | 1.3372 | 102.84 | 2.51 | 16878 | 101.45 |
08/17/14 | 1.2961 | 107.60 | 2.57 | 17151 | 94.05 |
10/29/14 | 1.2677 | 108.40 | 2.33 | 16956 | 82.51 |
12/17/14 | 1.2409 | 117.58 | 2.11 | 17201 | 57.85 |
01/28/15 | 1.1337 | 117.77 | 1.78 | 17457 | 44.75 |
03/18/15 | 1.0637 | 120.98 | 2.05 | 17733 | 42.49 |
04/29/15 | 1.1164 | 118.67 | 2.05 | 18039 | 59.16 |
06/17/15 | 1.1255 | 124.22 | 2.39 | 17862 | 59.12 |
07/29/15 | 1.1073 | 123.61 | 2.29 | 17720 | 49.17 |
09/17/15
10/28/15 |
1.1334
1.1081 |
120.86
120.50 |
2.26
2.07 |
16778
17687 |
47.01
45.83 |
12/16/15
01/27/16 03/16/16 04/27/16 06/14/16 07/27/16 09/21/16 11/02/16 12/14/16 02/01/17 03/15/17 05/03/17 06/14/17 07/25/17 09/20/17 11/01/17 12/13/17 01/31/18 03/21/18 05/02/18 06/13/18 08/01/18 09/26/18 11/08/18 12/19/18 |
1.0956
1.0874 1.1089 1.1339 1.1205 1.0998 1.1160 1.1099 1.0641 1.0741 1.0638 1.0910 1.1149 1.1735 1.2010 1.1631 1.1815 1.2424 1.2271 1.1963 1.1788 1.1668 1.1765 1.1400 1.1429
|
121.72
118.48 113.70 111.37 106.15 105.65 100.84 103.33 115.37 113.52 114.48 112.47 111.55 111.17 111.34 113.91 112.58 109.31 106.27 109.91 110.38 111.69 112.94 113.88 112.19
|
2.29
2.02 1.99 1.89 1.62 1.53 1.70 1.78 2.45 2.49 2.57 2.30 2.13 2.29 2.24 2.35 2.34 2.73 2.89 2.97 2.96 2.99 3.08 3.23 2.81 |
17583
16002 17217 18013 17675 18461 18151 17989 19915 19890 20885 20920 21375 21711 22376 23405 24585 26259 24839 24095 25309 25310 26543 26195 23852 |
35.95
30.85 37.79 44.89 48.29 41.91 43.44 45.18 51.83 53.33 48.43 47.96 44.71 48.75 50.55 54.24 56.60 64.41 65.00 67.57 66.77 67.62 71.68 60.93 47.67 |
Copyright 2018, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: FOMC preview