Wednesday afternoon the Federal Open Market Committee will release its latest monetary policy statement. For comparison, the March statement is posted on FederalReserve.gov. If you must engage in the act of combing through each word, it's always best to have the prior release in front of you when the new one hits the wires.
Hugh Johnson, chairman and CIO at HJ Advisors, says investors are safe in assuming that there aren't going to be any seismic shifts in policy. "It's going to be pretty much the same statement," Johnson says in the attached video.
Ticking through the old favorites, Johnson says he's looking for commentary on low rates, unemployment, slow growth, etc. "You can parse all you want but basically that's what it's going to tell you," he states.
The exception is whether or not the list of dissenters to current policy expands beyond Esther George. It's the behind the scenes debate regarding the timing of tapering the quantitative easing programs that Johnson is paying attention to and none of that will be in the statement. He suggests Fed watchers turn their attention to statements and speeches from the individual Fed Governors. That's where the debates between the hawks and the doves are taking place. The nature of those "animated" conversations are investor's best tell for future FOMC action.
