Jim Barnes, Senior Vice President and Director of Fixed Income at BMT Wealth Management, discusses the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting that concluded on January 29th, the first meeting of the year.  As expected, the Federal Reserve (Fed) left the federal funds target range unchanged at 1.50% – 1.75%. Overall, the Fed continues to have a favorable view of the U.S. economic outlook although uncertainty remains regarding trade and global growth.  In the post FOMC press conference, the Fed Chairman responded to a number of questions regarding its growing balance sheet but stopped well short of describing it as Quantitative Easing.