Every Monday on Good Morning Quad Cities, investment adviser Mark Grywacheski joins us on Good Morning Quad Cities to share his insight on finance matters that impact our community.
On March 26th, we talked with Mark about why there was a heavy decline in the stock market last week (click the video above for that) and his key takeaways from last week's Federal Reserve meeting:
"The Federal Reserve stated the economy will continue to grow faster than previously expected," he said. "For years, the economy has been growing at a very moderate annual pace of around 2.2%. On Wednesday, it raised this year’s projected growth rate of the economy from 2.5% to 2.7%. But the greatest projected improvement is in the labor market. The unemployment rate is currently at 4.1% and should further decline to 3.8% this year. For 2019/2020, the unemployment rate should fall to just 3.6%- a 50-year low."
As for inflation and future interest rate hikes, Mark said the Federal Reserve sees a gradual increase in prices. However, he said if inflation starts to accelerate this year, there could be up to four interest rate hikes in 2018 alone and cause some more volatility in the stock market:
"Since the beginning of February, the Federal Reserve and the financial markets have been trying to refine their estimate on how fast inflation will start to rise. However, every couple of days or weeks, we keep getting conflicting information that’s driving these massive price swings in the stock market. Until we get a more definitive answer on inflation – and most importantly, the number of interest rate hikes we can expect from the Federal Reserve – I see this conflicting economic data continuing to drive uncertainty in the stock markets."
Your Money With Mark airs live on Good Morning Quad Cities every Monday between 6am and 6:30am.