FEDERAL RESERVE

Federal Reserve officials delayed an interest rate increase in September because of growing risks to their outlook for economic growth.

The activists have been trying to get a meeting with the bank president since the Fed's summer retreat in Wyoming.

Rosengren said the slowdown in hiring last month effectively heightens his sensitivity to the economy's performance the rest of the year.

The Labor Department's monthly employment report, due on Friday at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), will almost certainly show the U.S. economy is growing enough to push the jobless rate lower in the coming months.

Several Fed officials have indicated they could raise benchmark interest rates in October, but others suggest it may happen later.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen assured markets that interest rates would rise in 2015, but she also had a message for workers.

If inflation is stable and a stronger economy can boost employment, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board will raise interest rates later this year, its chairwoman said.

Wall Street expects the earliest possible time for a U.S. rate rise will be December or early 2016.

John Williams has previously said the Fed's decision not to raise interest rates this week was a close call.

Thirteen of 17 Fed members last week said they still expect to hike rates this year.

San Francisco Fed President John Williams declined to specify whether he sees October or December as the appropriate time to go.

Holding interest rates steady, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen painted an American economy yoked to the ups and downs of world markets.

The Fed has held rates at historic lows since 2008 in the midst of the Great Recession to help the economy emerge from a near collapse.

Just about everyone is trying to predict how the announcement will affect everything from commodities and stocks to home sales and job prospects.

Markets braced for a highly anticipated announcement from the U.S. central bank that could mark the first interest rate hike in nearly a decade.

The Fed's second-in-command said in a speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium that central bankers are more interested in where the U.S. economy is going than where it's been.

The key focus for investors will came later in the global day, when U.S. data is expected to show that 223,000 jobs were created in July.

The report comes a day after the Federal Reserve left interest rates at historic lows as it prepares lift rates for the first time in nearly a decade this year. 

Policymakers said the economy is “expanding moderately,” signaling the Fed remains on course to lift interest rates in September -- for the first time in nearly a decade.

An inevitable rise in interest rates will have broad affects on consumers as windows of opportunity narrow on these three types of financial products.

Investors are looking to the Fed’s policy meeting for more clues on when the central bank plans to hike interest rates.