Fed expected to hold rates this week, with a December hike widely forecast
The decision lands at 11 a.m. PT Wednesday. A Reuters poll found 94 of 100 economists expect a hold.
By the Bay Area Brief staff · Edited by Seamus McKenna · · 2 min read
The Ferry Building and Bay Bridge at night, seen from Pier 1 in San Francisco. Photo: Daniel L. Lu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped, resized and color-graded). Archive photo of the area; not a photo of the events in this story.
The Federal Reserve meets Oct. 27–28 and is expected to keep its benchmark rate at 3.75% to 4.00% after a quarter-point hike in September. The decision is due at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT) Wednesday.
What forecasters expect
In a Reuters poll, 94 of 100 economists expect a hold, and all 100 expect a hike in December.
KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk flagged Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan as a possible dissent.
This is a meeting under Chair Kevin Warsh.
The backdrop
Oil is above $100 a barrel because of the Iran war.
Q2 GDP grew 2.2%, and Q3 is forecast at 3.2%.
Treasury yields hit multi-decade highs on Oct. 7.
Sources
This article is an original summary based on the following reporting. We encourage readers to visit the original sources for full coverage.
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Santa Clara-based ServiceNow reports third-quarter results after the market closes Wednesday. Analysts expect about $1.02 a share on $4.09 billion in revenue.
Next week, more than a dozen Bay Area companies report quarterly results. Cadence, Visa, Robinhood, Alphabet, ServiceNow, KLA, Intel and Gilead are among them, and the Fed announces a rate decision on Wednesday.
Mountain View-based Alphabet reports third-quarter results Wednesday, Oct. 28, with a call at 1:30 p.m. PT. Analysts expect about $3 a share on nearly $128 billion in revenue, and Google Cloud is the number to watch.
San Francisco-based Visa reports fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results after the close Tuesday, Oct. 27. Analysts expect $3.43 a share, up from $2.98 a year earlier.
