Merrill: Fed Won't Tighten In 2004

ByJohn S. McClenahen The U.S. Federal Reserve System's policy-making group, the 12-member Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is scheduled to meet eight times in 2004. But at none of those meetings will the FOMC vote to raise the target for the federal funds rate, believes David A. Rosenberg, chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch & Co., New York. Indeed, Rosenberg says, "the risks are still tilted toward another easing before a tightening." The federal funds target rate is currently 1%, the lowest in four decades.