RATE FATE WAIT

Cut sked unclear

Federal Reserve officials indicated that interest rates were “at or near” their peak when they voted to leave the rate unchanged last month — but offered few clues as to when they might implement cuts.

The Federal Open Market Committee signaled that it anticipated some cuts of three-quarter percentage points in 2024 in deciding to hold the rate steady at a range between 5.25% and 5.5% — the highest since 2006, according to the minutes of their December meeting released Wednesday

“Almost all participants indicated that . . . a lower target range for the federal-funds rate would be appropriate by the end of 2024,” said the minutes, with “a number of participants” highlighting increased uncertainty about how long strict monetary policy would need to be maintained given the progress achieved on lowering inflation.

In a firm nod to their progress in easing pricing pressures, policymakers also, for the first time since June 2022, did not use the phrase “unacceptably high” to describe inflation.

Fed officials appeared increasingly convinced that inflation was coming under control, with “upside risks” diminished and growing concern about the damage that “overly restrictive” monetary policy might do to the economy.

“Participants pointed to the decline in inflation seen during 2023, noting the recent shift down in six-month inflation readings in particular,” the minutes said, which through November were running slightly below the Fed’s 2% target.

Stock reply

The Consumer Price Index for November came in at 3.1% — well off the fourdecade highs hit in 2021 that prompted the Fed to go on its string of rate hikes over the past two years.

Stocks tumbled following the release of the minutes to finish down for a second straight day.

Investors had sent all three indexes to near or record highs in the weeks following the Fed meetings on Dec. 12-13.

Traders of interest-rate futures largely stuck to bets that the FOMC would start to cut rates in March, with the policy rate seen ending the year in the 3.75%-4% range.

Jeffrey Roach, head economist for Charlotte, NC-based LPL Financial, said the minutes of the meeting “are slightly hawkish but not enough to spook markets.”

“Markets hate uncertainty but, for now, they seem to be living with that reality,” Roach told The Post.