Week ahead: Fed puts Wall Street on edge

All eyes in the financial world are fixed on Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, who will hold a press conference Thursday where she could signal an increase in interest rates.

Economists are increasingly divided about whether the economy has recovered enough since the 2008 collapse for the Fed to increase rates, which have remained near zero percent since late that year.

{mosads}Yellen will hold the press conference after two days of meetings in Washington with Federal Reserve policymakers, and Wall Street will be hanging on her every word.

In Congress, expect lawmakers to continue sparring over funding for Planned Parenthood. Since the release of controversial videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue, Republicans have called for cutting off federal funding to the healthcare organization. 

More than 40 House conservatives have vowed to oppose any government funding bill that includes Planned Parenthood, creating a headache for GOP leaders as they seek to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1.

Elsewhere, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) will convene a full-committee hearing on Thursday dubbed “The Dodd-Frank Act Five Years Later: Are We More Free?” It’s the third of the panel’s three hearings examining the regulatory reform law on its fifth anniversary. 

Also on Thursday, the House Financial Services subcommittee on monetary policy and trade will have a hearing on “strengthening U.S. leadership in a turbulent global economy.”

Subcommittee chairman Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) will examine “how the United States has an opportunity to reorient international priorities with an approach that emphasizes fiscal responsibility and free markets,” according to a statement.

The Senate Banking Committee will have a nomination hearing on Thursday for Adam J. Szubin to be undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes in the Treasury Department.

The White House and Senate Democrats hammered the banking committee over the summer for failing to act on Szubin’s nomination, noting that he will be in charge of cutting the flow of funding to terrorist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Szubin has been the acting head of the Treasury’s intelligence and anti-terrorism arm since February.

Recent articles:

McConnell: Planned Parenthood shutdown fight ‘an exercise in futility’
http://digital-release.thehill.com/policy/finance/253387-mcconnell-rejects-calls-to-defund-planned-parenthood-in-cr

Consumer confidence drops amid concerns about global economy
http://digital-release.thehill.com/policy/finance/253386-consumer-confidence-drops-amid-concerns-about-global-economy

Richard Gere comes to Capitol to talk homelessness
http://digital-release.thehill.com/video/in-the-news/253333-richard-gere-comes-to-capitol-to-talk-homelessness

Labor chief hammers Wall St. over golden parachutes
http://digital-release.thehill.com/policy/finance/253331-labor-chief-hammers-wall-st-over-golden-parachutes

Treasury secretary ups pressure on Congress for debt-limit action
http://digital-release.thehill.com/policy/finance/253298-lew-ups-pressure-on-congress-for-debt-limit-action