- Fed to release minutes of first interest rate meeting under new chair Kevin Warsh.
- Officials kept rates at 3.50 to 3.75 percent for a fourth straight meeting but projected a year end rate hike.
- Investors seek details on the "good family fight" and Fed thinking after forward guidance was stripped.
- Persistent inflation remains above target since the pandemic, peaking near nine percent in 2022 and linked partly to supply shocks.
- Minutes due at 2:00 pm 1800 GMT as markets watch, with oil prices surging after resumed US Iran hostilities.
The US Federal Reserve is due Wednesday to release minutes from its first interest rate meeting under new chairman Kevin Warsh, a document facing heightened scrutiny in the face of persistent inflation.
Investors will be seeking deeper insights into the “good family fight” that Warsh said policymakers had during their June 16-17 gathering.
Following the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting last month, officials held interest rates steady for a fourth straight time at a range between 3.50 percent and 3.75 percent.
But policymakers also projected a rate hike by year-end to counter inflation, which has hit its highest level in three years.
The Fed said in a shorter statement than usual last month that inflation was elevated partially due to supply shocks that drove energy prices up, triggered by US President Donald Trump’s war on Iran.
Warsh has since vowed to fight “too high” costs, reiterating that the central bank plans to deliver price stability in the world’s biggest economy.
The Fed has a dual mandate of maintaining stable prices and maximum employment.
Price increases, however, have been far above the bank’s two percent target since the pandemic, peaking around nine percent in 2022.
With the Fed’s latest statement being stripped of forward guidance on the direction of interest rates, markets are looking for more details on the bank’s thinking about the path forward.
The Fed’s meeting minutes are due to be released at 2:00 pm (1800 GMT).
“It’ll be the first time that we will be reading minutes associated with the new Fed chair,” said Sam Stovall of CFRA.
Investors are impatient to see “how much will be revealed” and what the future of monetary policy might be, he added.
While oil prices cooled recently on the back of a temporary US-Iran deal, they surged again Wednesday as both sides exchanged fire and Trump declared the ceasefire “over.”
