The April meeting of the Fed’s monetary policy committee featured a lot of institutional news for a month in which the Fed kept monetary policy unchanged. The outlook for the economy and monetary policy remains unclear due to geopolitical turbulence and domestic policy uncertainty. This headline risk is delaying additional Fed monetary policy easing, likely until the end of 2026 or possibly into 2027. The Fed continued its current pause for rate reductions at the conclusion of the April meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the central bank’s monetary policy decision making body. The FOMC held the short-term federal funds rate at a top rate of 3.75%, the level set in December of last year. This marked the third policy pause since the Fed resumed easing in September of 2025. The Fed’s statement of current economic conditions and policy stance was relatively unchanged from March to April.