Here come the Fed minutes ...

The Federal Reserve is set to release the minutes of its July 2017 policy meeting at 2 p.m. ET.

At that meeting, the Federal Open Markets Committee voted to leave interest rates unchanged, as expected.

It also indicated that it planned to start work on shrinking its $4.5 trillion balance sheet "relatively soon." Details on that are expected as soon as its meeting in September.

For now, investors are focusing on how the Fed is thinking about inflation. While Fed Chair Janet Yellen attributed the recent slowdown to "idiosyncratic" or peculiar factors like cheaper wireless service, some other members of the policy-setting committee saw the decline as more structural. The minutes could shed light on the Fed's internal debate.

The slowdown in inflation has stoked the Fed's critics who argue that it should dial back its intention to continue raising rates.

"We still expect the next rate hike in December of this year but will closely watch for any signals within the minutes about how firm this forecast should be," said Nomura economists in a preview.

More to come ...