The Federal Reserve made the widely expected move of leaving interest rates unchanged at a 22-year high when it wrapped up its regularly scheduled two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. Whether the central bank will go for a third straight "hawkish pause" at the next Fed meeting in December remains an open question.
There was little doubt that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) would once again pause in its campaign of interest rate increases after standing pat in September. As expected, the central bank's rate-setting group left the short-term federal funds rate unchanged at a target range of 5.25% to 5.5%. Interest rate traders assigned a 99% probability to just such an outcome, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.
