WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve sent a sharp, simple message to financial markets on Wednesday: Pay attention. The Fed is thinking seriously about raising its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting, in June.
The unusually frank bulletin was delivered in the official account of the Fed’s April meeting, which said explicitly that most officials thought “it likely would be appropriate” to raise rates in June if the economy has rebounded from a weak winter.
That message is sharply at odds with the expectations of investors, who have largely written off the chances of a June increase, betting instead that the Fed would leave rates unchanged until later in the year. Measures calculated from asset prices suggested investors saw less than a 20 percent chance of a June hike before Wednesday.
This has slammed gold intraday
