Federal Reserve officials said at their latest meeting they likely would raise short-term interest rates “in the near term” because of a strengthening economy, although several said their support for the move would hinge on whether they see inflation picking up. With three weeks to go until the Fed’s final scheduled gathering of 2017, the minutes of the Fed’s last meeting reinforced market expectations that a quarter-percentage-point rate increase is imminent. The market for federal-funds futures contracts, where traders bet...

Source: Wall Street Journal November 22, 2017 19:03 UTC