On Friday, August 22, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell in his annual address at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, symposium, said conditions “may warrant adjusting our policy stance,” suggesting a rate cut is likely coming in September. 

I caught up with AgDirect’s Greg Roberg here at the Farm Progress Show to get some insights on what that means for dealers and the farm equipment industry.

"Everyone wants to know when our interest rate's going to go down, myself included being in the finance industry, so we got a little bit of good news, I believe last week. Chairman Powell was at Jackson Hole, Wyoming which he always does in August, and he gave some sentiment that we're seeing a little bit of decline in job growth and possibly the economy's slowing a little bit that maybe we didn't anticipate at this point in time. And hinted, hinted, that's a big word, that we may see a cut in September and the market took that as good news. The Dow Jones went up over 800 points. Treasuries dropped, so that indicates that we are going to get a drop in September. I believe they meet around September 17th, so we'll see today as we stand here at the Farm Progress Show, there's a 90% chance based on what the economists are saying, that we'll see at least a quarter percent drop in September."

"That's what we know today. It ebbs and flows. Inflation's still at 2.8, 2.9 roughly, so the mandate for the Fed is under 2%, but it does show some indications that maybe inflation has flattened and some signs that the economy is slowing, so we'll see. I would say that there is a very good chance we'll get at least a quarter in September. The Fed meets eight times a year. This will be their sixth meeting, so they'll meet again the end of October, like the 29th. They don't meet in November, and then they meet again in December. My personal opinion is we'll get that quarter in September. We won't get anything in October. We take November off, and we may see another quarter in December, but that's what my crystal ball says today here as we stand at the Farm Progress Show."

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