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 July 29.  As expected, the Federal Reserve (Fed) left monetary policy unchanged but added within the FOMC statement that “The path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus.”  Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged in the post-FOMC meeting press conference that recent economic data reflected a deceleration of growth but that more data will be needed to determine the overall strength of the current recovery.