Fed to wrap up rate rise cycle

Federal Reserve officials may be close to ending the series of interest rate increases they started 18 months ago, though they will keep going as long as necessary to combat inflation. Another quarter percentage point increase in the 4.25% target for the overnight lending rate appears to be, as the horse players would describe it, a mortal lock at the 31 January meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. Beyond that, the minutes of the 13 December committee released recently said: "Views differed on how much further tightening might be required." Most of the committee members, re...