Top Officials Suggest Fed Is Closer---but Not Yet Ready---to Cut

Two top Federal Reserve officials suggested an interest-rate cut could be warranted in the coming months—though not at the central bank’s meeting in two weeks—if a recent inflation slowdown continues. Together with signs that U.S. labor-market conditions are cooling gradually, the last three months of inflation data are “getting us closer to a disinflationary trend that we’re looking for,” said New York Fed President John Williams in an interview Tuesday.