- USA TRADERS THREAD -

2:00pm 01/03/06
FOMC majority says 'not large' number of rate hikes needed By Greg Robb
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A majority of members of the Federal Open Market Committee believe that the Fed will only have to engineer a few more rate hikes to keep inflation in check, according to a summary of the discussion at their Dec. 13 meeting released on Tuesday. Most members said the outlook for policy at the moment was "the number of additional firming steps required probably would not be large," according to the report. The summary noted that views differed among members about how much more tightening might be required. FOMC officials did agree that the outlook for monetary policy was becoming "considerably less certain" and decisions going forward would depend more on incoming economic data.