The Federal Open Market Committee met on July 30-31 and decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25-4.5%.

During the Dealership Minds Summit in Iowa City last week, Greg Roberg, vice president of sales at AgDirect, shared some perspective on the Fed’s announcement as well as what he thinks we can expect in terms of potential rate cuts by year end. 

He says holding at the current level was good news. The Fed meets next in September. 

"They're about 65%, we could see a quarter. So September today, what we know is looking likely we could see a quarter, at least a quarter, that'd be my guess in September. We get out, then they meet in October and December. October's like 87% chance and December's like a 99% chance. So there's some good news. We look like we're going to get at least one quarter rate exception, or I'm sorry, rate decrease this year."

"December looks like roughly a 50/50, maybe a little bit better chance of getting a second one. It looks like we're going to get at least one rate cut before the end of the year, better than a 50/50 chance of two. For those of you that are paying floor plan interest, that's some good news. For producers, that's some good news on our operating lines. I do think you'll see fixed rates come down a little sooner than operating rates. And so, for those of you that talk about interest rates with your producers, I think that's some good news. So I think you'll see that first the market is recognizing inflation's coming down. So I don't know that we're going to get any good news today, but I do think as we look out over the next four months or so, we'll get a little more better news on the interest rate front."

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