Federal Reserve minutes: Officials saw inflation cooling but were cautious about timing of rate cuts

abcnews.go.com:

The Federal Reserve’s policymakers concluded last month that inflationary pressures were easing and that the job market was cooling

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve's policymakers concluded last month that inflationary pressures were easing and that the job market was cooling. In response, the officials chose to leave their key interest rate unchanged for the third straight time and signaled that they expected to cut rates three times in 2024.

According to the minutes of their Dec. 12-13 meeting released Wednesday, Fed officials indicated in their own interest-rate forecasts that a lower benchmark rate “would be appropriate by the end of 2024'' given «clear progress'' toward taming inflation.

But they ”stressed the importance'' of remaining vigilant and keeping rates high “until inflation was clearly moving down sustainably'' toward their 2% target. And though Chair Jerome Powell indicated at a news conference after the meeting that the Fed was likely done raising rates, the minutes show that Fed officials felt the economic outlook was uncertain enough that that further hikes were still „possible.''

Powell had also suggested at his news conference that the Fed's policymakers discussed rate cuts during their meeting, a remark that helped ignite a stock market rally. Over the next few days, though, some other Fed officials tried to steer investors away from expecting any imminent cuts. Wednesday's minutes provided no explicit mention about a discussion of rate cuts.

Still, Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics said “there is nothing in these minutes to dissuade us that the Fed will start to cut interest rates from this March onwards.''

In the minutes of their meeting, the policymakers sounded