Federal Reserve eyes June for possible interest rate hike

The Federal Reserve made it loud and clear in their minutes released Wednesday that "it likely would be appropriate" to raise interest rates in June, assuming the economy recovers enough from the winter to justify the move. "While they haven't made a decision to move in June, they certainly want people to understand that it certainly is a possibility," the chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities LLC, Stephen Stanley, told Bloomberg.

The minutes said that, "Most participants judged that if incoming data were consistent with economic growth picking up in the second quarter, labor market conditions continuing to strengthen, and inflation making progress toward the committee's 2 percent objective, then it likely would be appropriate for the committee to increase the target range for the federal funds rate in June." After keeping rates stable for years, the Fed raised them slightly in December 2015, but has so far postponed plans to raise them further as economic turmoil from China and oil prices have shaken global markets.

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