The Federal Reserve is widely expected leave its benchmark interest rate steady this week, but economists and market participants will be keeping a close eye on what Fed officials say about the state of the economy and the outlook for rates.

The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC ... After the job report, The CME Group's FedWatch tool put the odds of a cut after the first meeting at just 2.7%.

At the Federal Reserve’s first meeting in 2025, consumers are going to want what Fed Chair Jerome Powell simply can’t give them: An answer to how much longer interest rates are going to stay high.

“I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately,” Trump said during a virtual address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 23. He later vowed to “put in a strong statement” with the Fed on the topic, confirming he expected that officials would listen.

Follow live coverage of the January FOMC meeting, interest-rate announcement, and Fed chairman Jerome Powell's press conference.

The Federal Reserve is about to wrap up its first interest-rate setting meeting of 2025, with investors worried that inflation is still stuck above its target. Investors are widely expecting the Fed to hold its benchmark interest rate at the current level again,

The rate-setting Federal Reserve did not heed Trump’s insistence last week demanding “interest rates drop immediately.”

But the president should not hold his breath. According to the CME Group's Fed Watch Tool, there is almost no chance of a rate cut. According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool this week, the Fed will hold its key federal funds rate at 4.25% to 4.5%, a level set in December. There may not be a rate cut until June.

Since the FOMC is responsible for setting interest rate policy at the Fed, Wall Street watches each SEP very closely. In the September SEP, the FOMC forecast five potential interest rate cuts in 2025, but that forecast was reduced to just two cuts in the December SEP.

Traders in the federal-funds-futures market were pricing in a greater probability that the Federal Reserve may keep its rate-cutting cycle on pause at its next meeting in March, as they assessed the Fed’s new policy statement released at 2 p.

Washington: After three interest rate cuts in a row, the US Federal Reserve is expected signal it will remain on pause until the data changes,

He cited inflation running above the Fed's 2% target, the expanding economy and a "solid" U.S. labor market. Before cutting rates again, the central bank may need to see "a couple months of some tangibly softer employment data," potentially in areas such as wage growth, said Rieder.