Weekly Market Commentary 02/23/2018

The financial markets continue to get whipsawed by conflicting views on a host of issues, with the biggest divide centering on monetary policy. Over the near term, nothing exceptional is expected to happen. The Fed’s policy-setting committee is widely expected to hike short-term interest rates by a quarter point for the sixth time since December 2015 at its upcoming meeting on March 20-21. Although the committee has not explicitly confirmed that timetable, most Fed officials have publicly stated in one way or another that conditions for an imminent increase were firmly in place. For the most part, the markets have accepted the inevitability of a March increase, as well as two additional ones this year that the Fed predicted at the December meeting. However, investors were taken aback by the minutes of the January 30-31 meeting that was released this week.