FOMC Announcement Today.

[ainsley]

Are there any other finance geeks that are a bit on edge waiting to hear if the Federal Open Market Committee is going to remove 'patience' from its position on possible interest rate hikes for the first time in nearly a decade?  The greenback has been gaining momentum against the major currencies as of late and that is just in anticipation of the FOMC announcement.  Not sure why I get excited about this stuff, but I do.

It also means that if you in the US are intending to pay for something abroad, like GRS/VFS/FFS, it will be favorable for the exchange rate (unless you plan to pay for something in Japan, because the Yen will have an opposite affect from the removal of 'patience' in the statement).

[ImagineKate]

Yep.

I work for a financial news TV network (among others) and I follow the markets and the fed. Just a hobby of mine though, but it has helped me grow my investments and retirement.

The only thing I'm paying for now is VFS and they are requiring payment in USD unfortunately. GRS won't be for a couple years and I may end up going to a US surgeon.

Analysts have been saying that they're not going to raise rates this year though.

[ainsley]

What I have read is that if the word patience is removed from their statement, then analysts expect the rate hike to occur in June.  According to BusinessInsider:

The last time we heard from Yellen back in December, the Fed dropped the much-debated phrase "considerable time" when discussing how long it would wait to raise rates after the end of its asset purchase program, which it concluded in October 2014.

"Considerable time" was replaced with "patient," and on Wednesday, Wall Street expects the Fed will ditch this language, setting the table for rate hikes sometime this year.

The Fed has not raised interest rates since June 2006.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/fomc-preview-march-17-2015-3#ixzz3Ul7nU3Pp

I guess we will wait and see!

[ImagineKate]

Saw that. The market seems happy for sure at the prospect.