{"id":301668,"date":"2026-02-25T15:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/301668\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T15:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:45:08","slug":"confidence-improves-as-fed-stays-cautious-dbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/301668\/","title":{"rendered":"Confidence improves as Fed stays cautious \u2013 DBS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DBS Group Research highlights that Boston <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fxstreet.com\/macroeconomics\/central-banks\/fed\" data-fxs-autoanchor=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fed<\/a> President Susan Collins signalled US interest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fxstreet.com\/rates-charts\/rates\" data-fxs-autoanchor=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rates<\/a> are likely to stay on hold, describing policy as mildly restrictive with inflation still above 2%. Futures have pushed the expected first rate cut to September. Meanwhile, US consumer confidence rose in February, though expectations remain below levels historically consistent with avoiding recession.<\/p>\n<p>Fed on hold while confidence edges higher<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Meanwhile, Boston Fed President Susan Collins reaffirmed the Fed\u2019s narrative that interest rates will likely remain on hold for some time, characterizing current monetary policy as &#8216;mildly restrictive&#8217; and appropriate as labour market risks diminish while inflation remains above 2%.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This guidance prompted the futures market to shift its expectation for the next rate cut from June to September.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The market remained cautious despite the US Conference Board&#8217;s February 2026 report showing consumer confidence rising to 91.2, up from an upwardly revised 89.0 in January.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite the rise, the expectations index remained below the 80 threshold, which historically signalled a recession ahead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The present Situation Index decreased by 1.8 points to 120, reflecting a slightly more pessimistic assessment of current business and employment conditions compared to the previous month.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(This article was created with the help of an Artificial Intelligence tool and reviewed by an editor.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DBS Group Research highlights that Boston Fed President Susan Collins signalled US interest rates are likely to stay&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-301668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}