With another meeting of the Fed looming on the horizon (i.e. this week), probably the biggest question in everyone’s mind is still: “Are Interest Rates going to go up?”. If you listen to to the numerous Financial Analysts out there…you could come away seeing it going either way. On the one hand, our Economy does seem to be on a very slow trajectory in the right direction…Unemployment Rates are down…the Housing Market is doing OK (with regard to Home Values, Sales, New Housing Starts, etc.)…Energy Prices are Low (good from a purely Consumer standpoint). So taking only these indicators into account…it might seem reasonable that the Fed would feel that it might be a good time to adjust Interest Rates up and there are Analysts out there predicting this move.

However, there are still some important indicators that the Fed has been watching, such as Inflation, which aren’t where the Fed has has stated they would like them to be before making any changes. In addition, there have been worrisome events of late taking place in another leading World Economy, namely China, that may give the Fed pause to do anything with Interest Rates at this point. China has seemingly been “devaluing” its currency and the Chinese Stock Market has been going through a challenging stretch. In light of the “global economy” in which the developed world now conducts business, these types of events in one sector of the global economy can tend to have repercussions in another. In light of that, there have been an equal number of predictions from Analysts that the Fed won’t make a move on Interest Rates at this juncture.  Sooner or later Interest Rates are going to go up…but at the moment it’s anybody’s guess as to when. We’ll know more this time next week…