Here's everything the Federal Reserve is expected to do Wednesday

cnbc.com:

The Federal Reserve will close its two-day meeting Wednesday with a heavy air of uncertainty as the central bank moves forward in its efforts to bring down inflation and stabilize the troubled banking sector.

At the moment, those two goals seem to be in conflict: Getting inflation down requires the same higher interest rates that have inflicted crisis-level effects on banks.

Still, after much volatility markets seem to have coalesced around expectations that the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee will approve a 0.25 percentage point, or 25 basis point, increase.

But that won't be all that policymakers will have to address.

They're also on tap to update rate and economic projections, and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell then will have to explain it all at his post-meeting news conference.

Here's a quick look at everything likely to happen.

If the Fed goes ahead and raises its benchmark funds rate by a quarter point, that will take it to a target range of 4.75%-5%, its highest since late-2007.

Up until the recent events in the banking industry, the rate hike was considered a no-brainer. Comments from Powell two weeks ago even had markets thinking the Fed could go half a point. The banking tumult has switched to no-hike vs. a quarter-point.

«Everything is changed,» said Komal Sri-Kumar, president of Sri-Kumar Global Strategies and a frequent Fed critic. «Now what I think they should do and what I think they will announce are the same namely, a very soft 25 basis point hike.»

Markets agree: As of Wednesday morning, traders were assigning a more than 90% chance of a quarter-point move, according CME Group tracking.

Lump these two together, because markets will be poring through both the post-meeting statement and Powell's