Traders reduce bets on negative U.S. rates after Powell says Fed not considering

(Reuters) – Traders of short-term U.S. interest-rate futures on Wednesday reduced bets the Federal Reserve will take the unprecedented step of pushing interest rates below zero after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that negative interest rates are not under consideration.

Even so, futures contracts maturing in April 2021 and later continued to signal trader expectation that the Fed’s policy rate will go negative, according to CME Group’s FedWatch, which translates fed funds futures pricing into traders’ monetary policy expectations.

source: reuters.com