Federal Reserve officials held off on cutting interest rates at their July meeting, but minutes from the meeting show they are poised to lower them at their meeting in September.
The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee left its benchmark interest rate unchanged in the 5.25%-5.50% range on Wednesday, July 31.
But "the vast majority" of participants “observed that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting."
Financial markets are expecting the September meeting to kick off the Fed's policy easing, with as much as a full percentage point worth of rate cuts expected by the end of this year. Read more.