Wednesday preview: Federal Reserve rate announcement in focus

All eyes on Wednesday will be on the US Federal Reserve as policymakers meet for a second day to decide on policy.

Fed futures were last assigning roughly 89% odds to a 25 basis point interest rate hike, meaning that a rate rise was pretty much in the bag.

A first rate cut was now priced-in for December's meeting, having been foreseen for summer just a few days ago.

Worth noting, some economists had estimated that the recent turmoil in the banking sector was the equivalent of a 25-50b hike.

Furthermore, Fed funds futures over the past couple of weeks had been exceedingly volatile.

As well, the damage to lenders' share prices during that same time span, had been considerable, possibly the result of forced selling and panic.

Nevertheless, rate-setters at the Fed had been pushing back on market expectations of rate cuts in the back half of 2023 for about nine months now quite successfully, perhaps too much so.

Wednesday 22 March

INTERIMS

Sareum Holdings

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (14:30)

Current Account (EU) (09:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (11:00)

FINALS

Anpario, BioPharma Credit , BlackBird, Essentra, Fevertree Drinks, Genel Energy, Gresham House, Hostelworld Group , Judges Scientific, LSL Property Services, MPAC Group, Pendragon, Ten Entertainment Group , Vistry Group

ANNUAL REPORT

Taylor Wimpey

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Foresight Solar & Technology VCT

AGMS

Abrdn Private Equity Opportunities Trust, Asia Strategic Holdings Limited NPV (DI), Harmony Energy Income Trust, Titon Holdings

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bloomsbury Publishing

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Price Index (06:00)

Producer Price Index (06:00)

Retail Price Index (06:00)