By Tobias Burns | The Hill
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent Wednesday amid growing speculation that the central bank would start rate cuts later this year.
Markets had been expecting the Fed to keep rates where they are as inflation continued to fall over the summer, but not quickly enough to spur the central bank to ease its policy. The CME FedWatch prediction algorithm, which is based on futures contract prices, put the odds of a July rate cut at just 3 percent in the hours before the meeting.
Stocks rallied ahead of the decision, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average of big U.S. companies up more than 200 points in morning trading.