FED: Economists at Nomura are an outlier in their expectations for
the FOMC stating that they do NOT think Hoenig will dissent again,
despite his discomfort with the Fed’s commitment to keep rates low.
“Serial dissents are relatively uncommon at the collegial FOMC, they
say. However, in line with the MNI survey, economists at Nomura expects
the “extended period” pledge to remain and for only minor tweaking to
the statement including language surrounding the MBS purchase program,
where they expect rewording to discuss the Fed’s “holdings” rather than
its “purchases”, as hinted in the minutes of the Jan meeting. Second,
“we think the committee could explicitly note the role of inclement
winter weather in the poor performance of recent activity indicators. We
do not expect a discount rate increase at the meeting, although we
cannot rule it out entirely.”