US Federal Reserve policymakers began a final 2002 policymaking session today amid universal expectations they will keep interest rates steady after last month's bold half-percentage-point cut.
Analysts said Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members will prefer to monitor the economy's performance over the vital Thanksgiving-to-Christmas holiday shopping season, gauging the durability of consumer spending and reserving policy action until sometime in 2003.
The policymaking FOMC began meeting at 2 p.m. (Irish time) and a decision was expected to be announced later this evening.
Financial markets already were anticipating no rate action,but stocks opened moderately higher today after postingdeclines yesterday.
While recent days have been filled with drama on theeconomic front, the shake-up to the Mr Bush administration economyteam and expectations of a massive new fiscal stimulus packagewere unlikely to spill into the Fed boardroom.