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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Reserve will not give the market any hints, winks or nods about its battle plan for pushing interest rates higher after their meeting concludes on Wednesday, economists said.

The overwhelming consensus is that the Fed will hold the federal funds rate steady at near-zero, where the Fed's target has been since last December. The Federal Open Market Committee begins its two-day meeting on Tuesday. An announcement is expected Wednesday at about 2:15 p.m. Eastern.

"The facts on the ground -- high unemployment, low inflation, no net private-sector job creation -- suggest to us that it is inconceivable that policy will actually change on Nov. 4," said the economic team at Credit Suisse in a report to clients.

A report in the Financial Times on Oct. 23 set off a firestorm when it suggested that the Fed was considering scrapping its promise to keep rates "exceptionally low" for "an extended period."

The 'extended period' phrase has been in place since March. As the dust has settled, most Fed watchers have concluded that Wednesday is too early for the central bank to edit the language.

"We don't expect them to move away from the extended-period language," said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc., in New York.

Veteran Fed watcher David Jones of DMJ Advisors agreed: "I don't see them really coming up with anything new," he said.

"I think they will stick with interest rates in the zero to quarter-point range and will mention that economic conditions are better, but still justify rates at low levels for an extended period," Jones said.

Worried about growth, or spooked by inflation?

Analysts still believe that the majority at the Fed, clustered around Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, remains worried about the economic outlook and the consequences of signaling a tightening too soon.

The U.S. economy grew at a 3.5% annual rate in the third quarter, its fastest growth rate in two years.

Economists generally believe that growth will be moderate going forward, in the range of 2% to 3.5%. And there remains a key unanswered question about whether the economy can stand on its own without massive government stimulus.

For the Fed majority, agreeing to a change in language now risks accelerating the market's expectations of a rate hike, Maki said.

Maki doesn't expect the Fed to raise rates until next September.

"What is the point changing the language, if not to signal tightening is commencing relatively soon?" Maki asked.

On the other side of the equation are several regional Fed bank presidents, who remain much more worried about the inflation outlook. They support a change in language because it would give the Fed flexibility to move quickly if the economy turns out to be much stronger than expected.

Some analysts agree scrapping the 'extended period' language is justified.

"The current circumstances suggest that the existing guidance on interest rates...is probably due for a change," said economists at Morgan Stanley.

Some economists admit their expectation of no change in language is based on a hunch that the Fed would have wanted to do a better job of signaling the move, and that the Fed would have given hints that it was thinking of altering the language.

"Fed speakers did not sound particularly hawkish during the inter-meeting period," noted economists at BNP Paribas.

However, former Fed Gov. Lawrence Meyer was one of the first analysts to note that the central bankers were not sticking to the exceptionally-low-rates-for-extended-period script during their remarks since the last meeting.

But Meyer thinks there is an "extremely low probability" that the language will be changed on Wednesday.

Looking past this week

After this meeting, however, all bets on language change are off.

Of course, upcoming economic data play the central role in the Fed's decisions, analysts said.

The language could be altered as early at the last FOMC meeting of the year on Dec. 15-16. Most economists, at the moment, have penciled in a wording change early next year and a rate hike sometime after June.

Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, said Fed watchers would be wise to circle a speech that Bernanke is scheduled to make to the Economic Club of New York on Nov. 16.

"It is not inconceivable that the FOMC might start to fiddle with the adjectives in its statement as soon as the December FOMC meeting. With this issue looming over the market, Chairman Bernanke's speech...will be a hot ticket," Crandall said.