The most-watched economic event of the year lands today. The central bank gives its verdict, and a new chairman takes the stage.

He arrives to a puzzle: shoppers are spending freely while homebuilding has slumped. The economy is sending two opposite signals at once.

Today’s USA & Canada Intelligence Brief covers the two economies’ finance, markets, jobs, and policy. We pulled it together from US and Canadian sources, and we have kept it to home affairs.

United States — The Verdict Lands

A Hold, Almost Certain