Notes released Wednesday from the Fed's July 26-27 board meeting said inflation is "unacceptably high" despite signs U.S. economic growth is weakening. Board members saw "little evidence" inflation pressures are subsiding.
In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London slipped 0.2 per cent to 7,498.98 while Frankfurt's DAX added 0.3 per cent to 13,672.70. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.2 per cent to 6,539.60. The Kospi in Seoul retreated 0.3 per cent to 2,508.05 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 was down 0.2 per cent at 7,112.80. The U.S. central bank has hiked its benchmark lending rate twice this year by 0.75 percentage points, triple its usual margin. Forecasters say a hike of the same size is possible at its September meeting, though the likelihood has declined as data show the economy weakening.