The manager turned first to a review of developments in financial markets. Asset prices were less volatile and financial market conditions eased somewhat over the intermeeting period as investor sentiment around the banking system stabilized. On net, nominal Treasury yields declined, equities appreciated, credit spreads tightened, and the trade-weighted value of the dollar depreciated. Measures of implied volatility declined across markets. Policy-sensitive rates, however, fluctuated a fair amount over the period, particularly in response to economic data but also because of market perceptions of risk and liquidity ... (full story)

Federal Reserve officials were divided at their last meeting over where to go with interest rates, with some members seeing the need for more increases while others expected a slowdown in growth to remove the need to tighten further, minutes released Wednesday showed. Though the decision to increase the Fed’s benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point was unanimous, the meeting summary reflected disagreement over what the next move should be, with a tilt toward less aggressive policy. At the end, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee voted to remove a key phrase from their post-meeting statement that had ... (full story)