In short, the Fed is seeing the best of both worlds: an economy growing steadily with inflation headed toward its target, albeit maybe a little slower than had been anticipated. The Fed confirmed this Wednesday when it released its “beige book” survey of the U.S. economy, noting growth in the economy continued although hiring was subdued.

U.S. central bankers on Tuesday said they continue to believe inflation is heading down to their 2% target and signaled support for further interest rate cuts ahead, but none pushed strongly for or against doing so when they next meet to set rates in two weeks.

The Federal Open Market Committee is most likely to cut interest rates again to 4.25% to 4.5% on December 18 according to fixed income markets.