Fed leaves door to December hike wide open

The FOMC statement released at the conclusion of the October meeting left the door to a December rate hike wide open. The repetition that the Committee would like to see 'some further improvement' in the labour market and that it would like to be 'reasonably confident' that inflation will move back to its 2 percent objective over the medium term was not surprising. This left the door open to a December hike. 

The new phrase "In determining whether it will be appropriate to raise the target range at its next meeting" could also be seen in this light. However, what left the door wide open was the removal of the sentence "Recent global economic and financial developments may restrain economic activity somewhat and are likely to put further downward pressure on inflation in the near term." 

While the FOMC continues to monitor global economic and financial developments, it seems that the Committee is not very impressed by the negative impact on the US economy from the global financial turmoil so far.