A joint meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee and the Board of Governors was held in the offices of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, January 30, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. and continued on Wednesday, January 31, 2018, at 9:00 a.m.1 PRESENT: Janet L. Yellen, Chair William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman Thomas I. Barkin Raphael W. Bostic Lael Brainard Loretta J. Mester Jerome H. Powell Randal K. Quarles John C. Williams James Bullard, Charles L. Evans, Esther L. George, Michael Strine, and Eric Rosengren, Alternate Members of the Federal Open Market Committee Patrick ... (full story)

Federal Reserve officials grew more positive on the economic outlook, citing “substantial underlying economic momentum,” and were increasingly optimistic about achieving their inflation target, according to minutes of last month's policy meeting. Fed officials “anticipated that the rate of economic growth in 2018 would exceed their estimates of its sustainable longer-run pace and that labor market conditions would strengthen further,” the minutes of their Jan. 30-31 meeting released in Washington on Wednesday showed. A number of participants “indicated that they had marked up their forecasts for economic growth in ... (full story)