Fed Expected to Hold Rates, Weigh Oil Shock

Investors will be looking to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell this week for insight on how the US central bank is weighing a range of risks to the economy amid US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Officials are expected to hold their benchmark interest rate steady for a second consecutive meeting in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. But policymakers are likely having a robust discussion over the ways the war in the Middle East could put pressure on both sides of their mandate — and whether responding to the threat of slower growth could add fuel to inflation that’s been above the Fed’s target for five years running.