Fed Minutes May Give Clues on Timing of Balance-Sheet Runoff

Bloomberg ------ Federal Reserve officials have mapped out plans to reduce their $4.5 trillion balance sheet, but they’ve left out one key detail: the starting point. Clues about whether they’ll begin the asset reduction before another rate hike could come from the record of policy makers’ debate last month. Minutes of that June 13-14 meeting will be released at 2 p.m. on Wednesday in Washington. The Fed lifted rates in June, signaled one more hike in 2017 in updated projections and spelled out how it would begin gradually unwinding its bond portfolio this year. While Chair Janet Yellen told a post-meeting press conference the process could begin “relatively soon,” the central bank has left the precise timing and sequencing a mystery. To learn more click on the picture below to read the article.