[Bill Hemmer, Cnn Anchor:] They say everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it. True. The same cannot be said about the economy, though. Federal Reserve policymakers wrapping up a two-day meeting later today, and they will announce a decision on interest rates: to change, to lower, or keep it the same. Live to Chicago and our financial news reporter Ceci Rodgers filling us in now on this one. Ceci, good morning.
[Ceci Rodgers, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Bill. Well, Alan Greenspan and his colleagues are wrapping up their two-day meeting and right now, even as we speak, they are probably discussing the current state of the economy and whether things are cooling off enough to allow them to leave interest rates unchanged, at 2:15 this afternoon Eastern time, Alan Greenspan and the Fed, they are expected to announce no change in interest rates, but, they are also expected to release a statement suggesting that perhaps they are still a little concerned about inflation. This is what the widespread expectation is on Wall Street. And the Fed usually likes not to surprise Wall Street traders, the stock market, and the other financial markets. Well, the Fed embarked on its credit tightening campaign a year ago. Raising the overnight federal funds rate six times for a total of 1 34 percentage points. The federal funds right now stands 6 12 percent. That is a nine-year high. That last move was a 50 basis point rate hike, a very aggressive move, to try and cool down the economy and prevent run away inflation. Since then, economic reports, though, have been suggesting the beginnings of a cool down. We've had retail sales falling; construction seems to be moderating and the housing market is moderating. And just yesterday, we got a read on consumer confidence, showing the biggest drop there in more than a year. So there is a lot of expectations that the economy is cooling down but what people really want to know, what economists want to know is, is this temporary or will the economy gather steam in the months ahead? So most of the people in the markets are looking forward, already, to that August Fed meeting Bill.
[Hemmer:] All right, Ceci Rogers, August 22, is my calender is correct. We'll watch it today.