Stocks Muted Before the Open With Earnings Season in Focus

The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s September 16-17 meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that policymakers were open to further interest rate cuts this year, though many voiced caution over still-elevated inflation. “Most judged that it likely would be appropriate to ease policy further over the remainder of this year,” according to the FOMC minutes. At the same time, the minutes showed “a majority of participants emphasized upside risks to their outlooks for inflation.” While policymakers ...