Federal Reserve to announce policy update this afternoon

The Federal Reserve has already cut interest rates to near-zero amid the COVID-19 crisis, but the central bank could soon message that it is far from out of ammunition.

The Fed is back on schedule with an April policy-setting meeting that wraps up Wednesday afternoon. Fed Chair Jerome Powell throttled the central bank’s scheduled March meeting after making an emergency announcement on March 15 slashing interest rates to the lower bound and restarting its crisis-era asset purchases through quantitative easing.

In its Federal Open Market Committee announcement on Wednesday, the Fed is unlikely to announce any major policy changes.

Instead, Powell’s remarks will provide a “status check” on the central bank’s arsenal of emergency measures taken since the coronavirus began taking grip in the U.S.

In addition to absorbing over $2 trillion in assets over the last few weeks, the Fed has also opened up nine liquidity facilities to backstop markets ranging from U.S. Treasuries to risky corporate debt.

With first quarter GDP data already showing the U.S. economy in decline, the Fed’s policy statement could provide some color on how policymakers judge the trajectory of the economy going forward.

The Fed is scheduled to release its latest policy statement at 2 p.m. ET followed by Powell’s press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Brian Cheung is a reporter covering the Fed, economics, and banking for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter @bcheungz.

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