The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that U.S. Federal Reserve policy-makers meeting this week are expected to keep interest rates on hold but the larger story unfolding will be how the central bank confronts early moves by U.S. President Donald Trump that are likely to shape the economy this year. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that Mr. Trump was already complicating the Fed's job with moves to restrict immigration and raise import taxes, and on Thursday told global business leaders he would call on the Fed to cut interest rates. "I'll demand that interest rates drop immediately, and likewise they should be dropping all over the world," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, revisiting a form of pressure he regularly applied to the Fed with little apparent effect in his first term. Data since the Fed's last meeting on Dec. 17-18 has kept intact the core view among Fed officials that inflation will continue to move steadily, if slowly, toward 2 per cent. "We view the January Fed meeting as mostly a placeholder," said Bank of America analyst Mark Cabana. With so much uncertainty "we expect [the Fed] to retain maximal optionality" to resume cuts in March or continue a pause.