Briefings

Week InAdvance: August 24, 2015

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer will discuss U.S. inflation developments at the annual central banking symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Fed said in a statement released on Thursday in Washington that Fischer would take part in a panel discussion on Saturday, Aug. 29. There are no other public Fed Board member appearances scheduled Aug. 21-30, making Fischer's comments a potentially vital clue for investors weighing whether the Fed will act at its next policy-setting meeting on Sept. 16-17. Officials at the Federal Open Market Committee gathering last month voiced concern about low inflation, minutes of the meeting released on Wednesday showed. The news prompted investors to curb bets the Fed would raise rates in September. The probability that futures traders assign to a rate boost next month stood at 36 percent at 5:52 p.m. in New York on Thursday, the lowest since July, down from 50 percent on Wednesday morning. The Fed has held the benchmark federal funds rate near zero since 2008 and hasn't raised it since 2006.

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