FILE - A news conference with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appears on a monitor on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, May 1, 2024. The Federal Reserve delivers the minutes from its most recent interest rate policy meeting on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials at their most recent meeting welcomed recent signs that inflation is slowing and highlighted data suggesting that the job market and the broader economy could be cooling.
The policymakers also pointed to anecdotal cases of retail chains and other businesses lowering prices and offering discounts, a sign that customers are increasingly resisting higher prices. The minutes of the Fed’s meetings sometimes provide key details behind the policymakers’ thinking, especially about how their views on interest rates might be evolving. The financial markets are eagerly awaiting more clarity about the likely timetable for the Fed to begin cutting its benchmark rate. Rate cuts by the Fed would likely lead, over time, to lower borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards as well as business borrowing, and could also boost stock prices.