Here comes the Fed ...
With the release of the Minutes we'll get an inside look at the Fed's discussions last month.
The market's main focus will be any clarity the Minutes provide regarding the Fed's thinking on an interest rate hike at its September meeting.
Right now, markets are divided on whether the Fed will raise rates next month, a move that would be the Fed's first increase in interest rates in over 9 years and its first interest rate change in either direction in almost 7 years.
Of course, since the Minutes are backward looking, some don't think we'll learn all that much, or that what the Fed has to say will change the market's current division on whether next month will be the month or not.
And given recent developments in markets, strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch wrote in a note on Wednesday that these minutes will be particularly out of date.
"FOMC minutes typically are a bit stale by the time they are released three weeks after the meeting, "BAML wrote. "The combination of recent Fed speeches and the Chinese currency devaluation make the July minutes particularly old news."
BAML added:
As such, we think it is more important to focus on what factors might shift the FOMC's views on the timing of rate hikes, rather than what the Committee specifically was thinking on July 29th. To the extent that some participants continued to warn of risks from China, mention of that in the July minutes would get a lot of market attention and likely be seen as dovish. More significant would be any signs of increased concern about persistently low inflation, which would reinforce a dovish shift in market sentiment since the Chinese devaluation.
On Wednesday ahead of the meeting, stocks were lower as the price of crude oil was breaking down again and hitting a new 6-year low.
We'll be back with full reaction on the Fed's release as soon as it drops.