President will address the nation to lay out his plan for implementing his strategy in Afganistan.
@ The White House
In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. In the afternoon, the President the President will greet Asian American and Pacific Islander community leaders at the White House. In the evening, the President will address the nation from the White House to lay out his plan for implementing his strategy -- first unveiled in December 2009 -- to draw down American troops from Afghanistan.
@ Wall Street
The Fed's policy decision will be announced at 12:30pm on Wednesday, to be followed by a press conference with Fed Chairman Bernanke at 2:15pm. We expect the Fed to indicate that policy is firmly "on hold". This means that the QE II quantitative easing program will end on schedule at the end of this month and that there are no plans for a QE III, but that the Fed expects the federal funds rate to stay "exceptionally low for an extended period".
The key questions will be about how the Fed views the present combination of weak growth and higher-than-expected inflation. Does the Fed still expect growth to pick up after a soft first half? Is it still confident that the upward creep in core inflation will be contained? And what would be the trigger points for growth or inflation that would make the Fed change the status quo ? either to pump in more quantitative easing, or alternatively to start shrinking its balance sheet and preparing for a rate hike?
