Investing.com – Most Federal Reserve policymakers supported the notion that a gradual approach to increasing interest rates will be warranted, according to the minutes of the Fed's last policy meeting on September 19-20 released on Wednesday.
Investor expectations for a December interest rate hike grew after the Federal Reserve's September minutes showed Fed members agreed that gradual monetary policy tightening was warranted.
“… nearly all [FOMC members] supported again indicating in the postmeeting statement that a gradual approach to increasing the federal funds rate will likely be warranted,” the minutes showed.
The details of the meeting, at which the U.S. central bank voted to raise interest rates, also showed Fed members were increasingly concerned that the slowdown in inflation may not as transitory as anticipated.
“… many participants expressed concern that the low inflation readings this year might reflect not only transitory factors, but also the influence of developments that could prove more persistent,” the Fed said in the minutes. That prompted “a few” officials to suggest that the central bank should hold off further rate increases to assess trends in inflation.
The dollar and treasury yields dipped lower as market participants interpreted the Fed minutes as somewhat dovish amid signs that Fed members are growing increasingly concerned over the slowdown inflation.
The dollar fell 0.27% to trade at 92.84 while the U.S. 10-Year added to losses to trade around 2.341.
Gold Futures, traded flat at $1,291.78.