#FOMCMeeting What to expect from this week's Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates

The Federal Reserve is likely to stick to its "wait and see" mantra next week, setting the stage for a showdown with the president.

The Federal Reserve is expected to keep its key interest rate stable when the central bank's monetary policy committee meets on Wednesday, potentially provoking even more anger from President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that the Fed, which is not under the direct control of the White House, cut its benchmark interest rate by one percentage point.

Early Monday, financial markets estimated a nearly 100% probability that the Fed will leave the benchmark rate unchanged this week, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on futures trading data for Fed funds.

In recent weeks, Federal Reserve officials have been reluctant to lower interest rates from their current elevated levels, as they are concerned that Trump's tariffs could reignite high inflation, which has dropped at an almost unstoppable pace from the Federal Reserve's 2% annual target, after soaring in the post-pandemic era.

For his part, Trump has frequently criticized the Federal Reserve for not cutting rates this year, even calling its chairman, Jerome Powell, an "idiot."

A lower federal funds interest rate could boost the economy and foster job creation, but it could also relieve some of the downward pressure on inflation.

Fed officials have been under a "quiet" communication period in the past week before the meeting, but before going silent, members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) indicated that they wanted to see how the economy responded to Trump's tariffs before making any policy decisions.