The major stock indices are ending the day lower and voting thumbs down to "higher for longer" (for the time being at least). The FOMC in their dot plot are forecasting one more hike in 2023 and raised the end-of-year 2024 rate to 5.1% from 4.6%. In my mind, 4.6% was a little too low, but as time goes by convergence of the expected rate and the current rate, starts to decay the wide spread. The Fed took 50 basis points away from expected cuts in 2024.
Having said that, the one near guarantee is that the dot plot will be wrong the further you go out and the end of 2024 is a long way to go in this environment. However, who really knows what may happen. There are a lot of potential risks.
The final numbers are showing:
- Dow Industrial Average fell -76.87 points or -0.22% at 34440.87
- S&P fell -41.73 points or -0.94% at 4402.21
- NASDAQ index fell -209.07 points or -1.53% at 13469.12
