Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced another rate hike Wednesday in an effort to fight inflation. One local financial analyst tells WBEN it's likely this will be the last such hike for some time to come.
Michael Angelucci of Level Financial Advisors says he's not surprised by the latest Fed move. "Most people were expecting the Fed to make this change, raise this interest rate a quarter percent. So short term rates are going up," says Angelucci. He says the Fed has been looking at unemployment all along and unemployment has been very low, which historically triggers inflation. "Because unemployment is so low, most people thought they were going to go ahead and raise interest rates, although they've signaled now that I think they might be done for a while," notes Angelucci.
Angelucci says fears of a recession are fading. "They're trying to raise interest rates to cool off the economy without causing a recession. And the economy is still going strong, based on a lot of metrics. So the feeling is that they are not going to hit a recession. So it sure does look that way, by most indicators that we may see that soft landing," predicts Angelucci.
As far as the next step, Angelucci says it appears Fed Chair Jerome Powell doesn't see the likelihood of raising rates at least for the rest of this year. He believes their strategy may be to 'watch and see' how this takes hold in the economy. "There is usually a lag effect ... let's see how this plays out through the economy," he notes.
The Fed's next meeting is set for September.
