Fed Minutes Reveal Mixed Views About December Rate Cut

(RTTNews) - The Federal Reserve released the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, revealing officials had mixed views about the outlook for interest rates.

The minutes of the Fed's October 28-29 meeting said participants expressed "strongly differing views" about what policy decision would most likely be appropriate at the central bank's next meeting on December 9-10.

While the Fed said most participants agreed that it would be appropriate to eventually lower rates, several indicated that they did not necessarily view another 25 basis point rate cut as likely to be appropriate at the December meeting.

Others assessed that a further lowering of rates could be appropriate in December if the economy evolved about as they expected, although "many participants" suggested that it would likely be appropriate to keep the rates unchanged for the rest of the year, the Fed said.

During his post-meeting remarks, Fed Chair Jerome Powell's said a further reduction in rates in December is "not a foregone conclusion," noting Fed officials had "strongly differing views about how to proceed" at the final meeting of the year.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 29.6 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by another quarter point in December, down sharply from 93.7 percent a month ago.

The mixed views about the outlook for the December meeting came as Fed officials were also divided about whether to cut rates at the October meeting.

"Many participants were in favor of lowering the target range for the federal funds rate at this meeting, some supported such a decision but could have also supported maintaining the level of the target range, and several were against lowering the target range," the Fed said.

The minutes said those who favored or could have supported lowering rates in October generally observed that such a decision was appropriate because downside risks to employment had increased in recent months and upside risks to inflation had diminished or were little changed.

Meanwhile, those who preferred keeping rates unchanged expressed concern that progress toward the Fed's inflation objective had stalled this year or that more confidence was needed that inflation was on a course toward the objective.

The Fed eventually decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent to 4.0 percent in support of its dual goals of maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run.

The vote was not unanimous, however, as recently confirmed Fed Governor Stephen Miran once again preferred a half point rate cut and Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid preferred to leave rates unchanged.