The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet this week; interest rates were last raised in July 2023, and during Q4 when rates were held steady markets were hopeful that was a signal that a rate cut would be coming in 2024.  

Right now, however, the Federal Funds Futures market is predicting a 99 percent chance that at the next meeting rates will remain where they are, at an effective rate of 5.33 percent and a 97 percent chance that they will be held steady at the FMOC May meeting. It is not until June that there is a 56 percent chance of a rate cut.  Inflation ticked up in December 2023 to 3.4 percent and has remained “sticky” at 3.1 percent in January and 3.2 percent in February. Moreover, February&rs...