AP
Janet Yellen
At that meeting, the Federal Open Markets Committee voted to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged, just as markets had expected. Wednesday's minutes will be scrutinized for any clues on when the FOMC is likely to raise interest rates again.
It's unlikely to be in March, even after recent hawkish commentary from several Fed officials including Chair Janet Yellen. According to Bloomberg, futures traders priced in a 38% chance of a rate increase at the March 14-15 meeting, and a 60% chance of one at the gathering in June.
There's renewed interest in how the Fed plans to shrink its balance sheet. After the recession, the Fed launched bond-buying programs to keep help keep interest rates low, and expanded its holdings to about $4.5 trillion as a result.
"The shrinking of the balance sheet may start in the not too distant future," said Neel Kashkari, the Minneapolis Fed president, on Tuesday. Yellen was similarly vague during congressional testimony on Valentine's Day, saying the Fed would gradually unwind its balance sheet when the process of normalizing rates is well underway.
"It is clear that policymakers have not reached a consensus on the particulars of the Fed's reinvestment policy at this point," said Deutsche Bank economists in a note on Tuesday. Economists at BNP Paribas forecast that the Fed will start trimming its balance sheet once rates are in the 1%-1.5% range; the benchmark Fed funds rate is in a range of 0.50%-0.75%.