The Fed said the U.S. economy was enjoying "modest growth" and "robust" job gains, with policymakers still "highly attentive to inflation risks" as it seeks to tighten financial conditions and reign in high prices. Markets have been pricing in the possibility of a rate cut by the Fed in the back half of the year. On Wall Street, U.S. stocks were choppy after the Fed announcement but rebounded to turn positive as Chair Jerome Powell began to speak. "The key thing the Fed is focused on is wages and we are seeing wage inflation continue to ameliorate if you look at both average hourly earnings and the employment cost index which just came out, wages are beginning to soften, but they are not softening enough to get inflation down to that 2% target," said Ellen Hazen, chief market strategist at F.L.Putnam Investment Management in Wellesley, Massachusetts. "They had a very slightly dovish change in the language where they previously had talked about determining the pace of future … [Read more...] about Stocks rise, dollar falls after Fed hikes as expected