While a couple of the FOMC members wanted to wait for more evidence showing inflation would reach the Fed’s target of 2 percent, one member wanted to raise interest rate at the July meeting.
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According to a report on CBC News, Federal Reserve officials believed last month that immediate risks to the U.S. economy had receded, and that “an interest rate increase could soon be warranted”.
The Fed minutes released on Wednesday showed that most officials saw little risk of an uptick in inflation, regardless of what they do with rates.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 22 points, or 0.12%, to 18,574, the S&P 500 had gained four points, or 0.19%, to 2,182 and the Nasdaq Composite had added two points, or 0.03%, to 5,229.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust GLD, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.46 per cent to 957.78 tonnes on Wednesday.
For Reuters new Live Markets blog on European and United Kingdom stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets The fall in the dollar dominated currency market moves.
The figure for May was revised to 24,000 from 11,000 and the June figure was revised to 292,000 from 287,000.
The dollar’s index against a basket of six major currencies last stood at 94.63, hovering near Tuesday’s seven-week low of 94.426 and having lost 1.1 percent so far this week.
Hong Kong shares were the top gainer in Asia with a 1 percent rise, while a stronger yen, thanks to the Fed’s cautious outlook, pulled Japan’s Nikkei back 0.9 percent.
“The condition of the (U.K.) economy in the weeks since the referendum has not been as bad as feared”, said Jane Foley, a currency strategist with Rabobank in London.
South Korea’s 10-year bonds rose, with the yield falling two basis points to 1.42%, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg.
The FOMC’s next meeting will be held on September 20-21.
Rate setters at the Federal Reserve are divided over when the next interest rate rise should be, according to minutes from the USA central bank’s policy meeting.
The weaker dollar was an additional help to commodities like crude oil, where prices were otherwise being depressed by the prospect of record Saudi output. Brent crude, used to price worldwide oils, lost 16 cents to $49.69 in London.
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The dollar index .DXY snapped a three-day rout on Wednesday, as traders boosted their bets on a rate hike.
