Hike Or Not, Volatility Expected To Continue

The US Federal Reserve began it's highly anticipated September policy meeting on Wednesday morning as markets braced for a rocky road ahead. The bank has been forecast to raise interest rates at this meeting for months, but the recent market turmoil has given traders a reason to believe the bank may hold off. However, whether or not the bank postpones its policy tightening plans, most analysts believe that

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If the Fed does announce a rate hike on Thursday, there is likely to be some degree of panic among markets. Raising interest rates has proven unsuccessful for many other central banks and some worry that the US' recovery will fall off track with higher interest rates in play. However, if the bank holds off, speculation about when the bank will implement the rate hike will similarly cause volatility. Traders have been using every economic report and comment from Fed officials to make predictions about the timing of a rate increase, if September isn't the month, that guessing game will continue.

While the timing bank's initial rate hike is uncertain, most investors agree on one thing—

. Not only has Fed Chair Janet Yellen promised to keep the pace of interest rate hikes as slow as possible, but most believe that the global economic slowdown is likely to keep the bank from more tightening any time soon. The bank is widely expected raise rates before the end of the year, but after that, markets don't expect to see another increase for quite some time.