The Federal Reserve raises interest rates as expected

The US Federal Reserve has raised the target range for its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point, to a range of 1.5 per cent to 1.75 per cent, as was expected, in their most recent meeting. Their arguments for raising rates were that the US jobs market continues to be strong and economic activity is rising at a ‘moderate’ rate. However, markets were more focused on the fact that the Fed did not make any indication of a fourth rate rise this year, instead, sticking with forecasts of three rises in 2018. This led to the dollar weakening, along with US stocks, while US government debt was in demand, causing the 10-year yield to fall.