The Federal Reserve held its benchmark interest rate steady in late January and delivered its strongest signal to date that the central bank may have reached the end of its latest series of interest-rate increases. Nick Timiraos explains. Photo: GettyMost Federal Reserve officials last month expected the central bank could stop shrinking its $4 trillion asset portfolio later this year and believed a plan to do so should be released soon. Officials agreed “such an announcement would provide more certainty about the process for completing the normalization of the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet,” according to the minutes of the Jan. 29-30 meeting, released Wednesday.

Source: Wall Street Journal February 20, 2019 19:03 UTC