Fed Minutes: Rate Hikes "Very Close" To End
Posted by Noah Rosenblatt on January 3, 2006 at 3.10 PM
The Fed released the minutes from the Dec. 13th meeting of economic policy makers that control the Feds funds interest rate. A key sentence in the minutes clearly shows differing thoughts on whether or not the Fed will continue to raise rates, signaling that the end of the current 2 year rate-hiking campaign is very close.
"Views differed on how much future tightening might be required," the minutes said. "Although future action would depend on the incoming data, this characterization of the outlook for policy was seen by most members as indicating that, given the information now in hand, the number of additional firming steps required probably would not be large," the minutes continued.
I still believe very strongly that there is at least 1 more 1/4 point rate hike at the next fed meeting. But my contention now is that this will be the last one, barring any unforseen event that disrupts the national economy. This will keep mortgage rates below 7% and still at fairly low levels historically as we move into the first few months of 2006.
