As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to keep its target for the federal funds rate unchanged at 1.75% today.

No one expected the Fed to move rates higher, as the Bank of Canada has already done, until more unequivocal signs of recovery are evident in the U.S. “The information that has become available since the last meeting of the Committee confirms that economic activity has been receiving considerable upward impetus from a marked swing in inventory investment. Nonetheless, the degree of the strengthening in final demand over coming quarters, an essential element in sustained economic expansion, is still uncertain,” said the Fed in its policy statement.

It maintained a neutral policy bias too, noting, “In these circumstances, although the stance of monetary policy is currently accommodative, the Committee believes that, for the foreseeable future, against the background of its long run goals of price stability and sustainable economic growth and of the information currently available, the risks are balanced with respect to the prospects for both goals.”

Traders are debating over whether the Fed will start hiking rates by August, or whether it will run with a neutral policy into the fall.