At the start of 2024, investors expected the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates substantially this year as inflation cooled. Investors and economists are questioning when and how much Fed policymakers will manage to cut rates — and some are increasingly dubious that Fed officials will manage to lower them at all this year. Inflation’s stickiness has prompted Fed officials to signal that it may take longer to reduce interest rates than they had previously expected. Policymakers raised interest rates to 5.33 percent between March 2022 and last summer, and have held them there since. Investors who came into the year expecting a first rate cut by March have pushed back those expectations to September or later.

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Persons: Inflation’s stickiness Organizations: Federal Reserve, Investors