Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will likely strike a dovish tone on interest rates against a backdrop of middling economic growth and slowly rising inflation, Ameriprise Financial Chief Market Strategist David Joy said Tuesday.
The Fed’s policymaking committee kicks off a two-day meeting Tuesday. Wall Street is not expecting the central bank to raise rates, but investors will be listening for clues about the path of future rate hikes during Yellen’s press conference at the close of the meeting on Wednesday.
Markets rallied last month after Yellen said the Fed would “proceed cautiously in adjusting policy” in remarks to the Economic Club of New York. The Fed raised benchmark rates by a quarter of a percent in December.
“She indicated more or less the possibility of two rate increases. We think that that’s still a realistic possibility,” Joy told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Probably one is more likely between now and the end of the year, but I think they’re going to leave it exactly where she indicated.”
