The Commercial Real Estate Alpha Site

via Titan Funds

The Federal Reserve meets this week to decide whether, when and by how much it should cut rates later this year. A key question it must answer: Just how tight is its monetary policy? Many experts expect the Fed to hold rates steady at a target of 5.25% – 5.50%, as the Fed still waits for inflation to ease a bit more.

As we entered the year, some market participants thought that this March meeting may provide the first rate cut of the year. That reality, thanks to a difficult inflationary environment, doesn’t seem to be coming true. There are a bunch of mixed signals throughout the economy: real estate and home builders, consumer spending, and job growth, among others. The challenge of unscrambling conflicting signals explains why officials are focusing on what happens with inflation.