Fed Decision-Day Guide From QE Tapering Guidance to Dissents

Here’s what to look for when the Federal Open Market Committee releases a statement at 2 p.m. tomorrow after a two-day meeting in Washington. Unlike last month, the policy-making panel will not release economic forecasts, and Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will not be briefing the press afterwards.

-- Possible clarification in the statement on the likely path of the Fed’s bond buying, currently $85 billion a month. Bernanke said in a news conference on June 19 that the central bank may begin reducing the pace of purchases “later this year” and may end the program about the middle of 2014, assuming the economy performs as forecast by the Fed. By the time the program ends, unemployment will be around 7 percent, Bernanke said. The rate was 7.6 percent in June.