US Housing Gear Up For a Fed Policy Meeting

Federal Reserve policy makers meet Tuesday, January 31, 2006, and are widely expected to boost the Fed funds rate, a key short-term interest rate, by a quarter-percentage point to 4.5 percent. It would mark the 14th consecutive rate hike since June of 2004.

However, as always, investors will be glued to the statement for hints about how the central bank may act in the future.

In particular, a future without the maestro, Chairman Alan Greenspan, who ends his more-than-18-year tenure following the meeting. Former Fed governor Ben Bernanke has been tapped to take over and many investors are hoping that he may bring an end, or at least a pause, to the rate-hike campaign. They will be looking to Tuesday's statement for hints.