Markets Enter Winter Freeze After Fed Minutes
Markets are struggling to dig themselves out of the snow this morning as a steady tightening in financial conditions threatens to cool global demand growth and weigh on corporate earnings. Yields inched higher and the dollar climbed after a record of the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting at the beginning of the month, released yesterday, showed a “few” non-voters lobbying for a half-percentage-point interest rate hike, even as a quarter-point move garnered unanimous support from the core group. According to the minutes, “A number of participants observed that a policy stance that proved to be insufficiently restrictive could halt recent progress...