Markets have already written the script for the Fed today: a hawkish hold, and an unchanged 2023 dot plot. Any FX action would depend on potential revisions to the 2024 dots, economists at ING report.
The overall message by the Fed should be supportive of the Dollar: keep the door open for more tightening if needed and do anything to dent the idea that rate cuts are a long way out. However, market expectations appear quite condensed around this script.
The 2024 dots are where there is a bit more room for uncertainty: leaving the 2024 dot unchanged may not be enough to trigger a material USD correction (perhaps leaving USD largely unchanged, if matched with Powell's verbal rate-cut pushback), but higher 2024 dots can translate into another USD leg higher.
Beyond the short-term impact, we don’t expect this meeting to be a game changer for the Dollar, as the focus will remain on US activity data.
See – Fed Preview: Forecasts from 15 major banks, a pause, but the end of rate hikes?