Termina Medium

The US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will hold its next meeting on 17-18th September and is widely expected to cut official interest rates by 0.25%, although there is an outside chance of a 0.50% cut. A rate cut has most likely been priced into both equity and bond markets, but the potential remains for a volatile market reaction to the meetings depending on the magnitude of the cut and the language that Fed chair Jerome Powell uses.

China’s Third Plenum has had limited coverage in the Western financial media despite containing what Carrara considers several significant policy shifts – especially given the impact that the Chinese economy has on global markets. This note breaks down the event’s policy agenda into the key areas that may have an impact on global markets and hence investment portfolios.

Last month, the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released “An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034” which contains its baseline projections of what the US federal budget and the economy will look like in the current year and over the next 10 years if laws governing taxes and spending generally remained unchanged.