Key Takeaways The Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep its interest rate flat at Wednesday's policy meeting.Fed officials are reluctant to make any monetary policy moves while they wait to see what President Donald Trump's economic policies will be enacted and how they'll affect the economy.

The Federal Reserve will keep interest rates steady through the first half of the year, before delivering two reductions beginning in September, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The Federal Reserve is seen restarting interest-rate cuts in June, traders bet on Tuesday, as government data showed U.S. producer prices were unexpectedly flat last month and weekly jobless claims fell.

Top Wall Street analyst Tom Lee believes that a Fed rate cut is highly likely, given the “overreaction” in the market.

Expectations for the next interest-rate reduction are being brought forward after the stock market’s big selloff at the start of the week. Investors had penciled in June as the most likely moment for

Softer U.S. labor market conditions against the backdrop of trade-policy uncertainty have prompted Barclays to raise its expectations to two rate cuts by the Federal Reserve for the year from one.

The Fed is not expected to cut interest rates at the conclusion of its next meeting on March 19, but there may be clues to the timing of the next cut.

Barclays has lowered its expectations; now, it thinks the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates twice this year instead of once. This is due to unclear trade policy and the weakening U.S. job market.

Barclays now expects the U.S. Federal Reserve to deliver two quarter-point interest rate cuts in June and September, the Wall Street brokerage said on Thursday, citing softer labor market conditions amid tariff uncertainty.