DECEMBER 19TH, 2018

And there you have it folks: today, the Fed decided to raise interest rates for the fourth and final time of 2018. The FOMC chose to bump the federal funds rate by another 25 basis points to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. There were a lot of questions going into today’s meeting, and a rate hike was not guaranteed. However, some of the reasons cited for raising rates were: a strengthening labor market, strong economic activity, increasing job gains, and a low unemployment rate.

There is a trade off with today’s rate hike: experts believe 2019 will now see only 2 rate hikes as opposed to the originally expected 3. Only time will tell…