To ‘Hike’ Or Not to ‘Hike’

To be or not to be, pondered Prince Hamlet in William Shakespeare's masterpiece ‘Hamlet’. Though written by Shakespeare nearly five centuries ago, various versions of Hamlet’s musings seem to find relevance across different aspects of life with Central bank policymaking being no exception. Post an unrelenting pace of rate hikes over the past year, market participants are building expectations of the US Federal Reserve reflecting on the path ahead as well as rein in terminal rate expectations as it meets on the 21st March. What changed then? And why this sudden expectation buildup on US Fed changing its iron clad grip on interest rates?