Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower on Wednesday (May 19) after minutes from an April Federal Reserve meeting showed participants agreed the United States economy remained far from the central bank’s goals, with some considering discussions on tapering its bond buying programme.
The S&P 500 added to losses after the release of the minutes revealed a number of Fed policymakers thought that if the economy continued rapid progress, it would become appropriate “at some point” in upcoming meetings to begin discussing a tapering of the Fed’s monthly purchases of government bonds, a policy designed to keep long-term interest rates low.
“There continues to be a view and a perspective from the participants, as well as the Fed staff that these inflationary pressures that are beginning to become evident will remain transitory in their view and will likely recede as we transition into 2022,” said Mr Bill Northey, senior investment director at US Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.
