Benzinga | Jan 27, 2021 08:27AM EST

Fed Likely To Hold Interest Rates Near Zero Today: WSJ

* Federal Reserve officials could keep the interest rates unchanged in the monetary policy meeting that concludes today, the Wall Street Journal reports.

* Fed has acknowledged recent signs of economic weakness and kept the short-term interest rates near zero. It had launched a bond-purchase program of $120 billion a month and decided to keep stimulative measures in place until lower unemployment, and 2% inflation goals are achieved.

* Fed officials also expect inflation to pick up in the short-term but are not backing on it to last.

* The resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. led to steeper lockdown measures, which led to rising unemployment benefits claims and falling retails sales since November.

* Fed claims that the setback is temporary, and the economy is likely to bounce back later in 2021 with mass vaccine roll-out. Congress and the White House approved $900 billion in new spending measures in December, and the Biden administration has proposed $1.9 trillion in additional measures, including sending $1,400 checks.

* The Ten-year Treasury rate is down by 1.7 bps to 1.023% on the last check, just two weeks after clocking a high of 1.187% since April 2020.

* With low interest rates, the mortgage demand showed a dip in the last week, but the average home buyer loan size hit a record high of $395,200, CNBC reports.