As expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board decided to leave interest rates unchanged at 1.75%. It also left its policy bias unchanged, leaning toward a future cut.

This was precisely the move that the market expected, and markets reacted initially by selling off.

There is a new feature in the statement out the Fed today, which is that they now publish the voting record of the Fed governors. The decision was not unanimous. Voting against the action were: Edward Gramlich and Robert McTeer, Jr. Gramlich and McTeer wanted to cut rates.

In its policy statement, the Fed indicated that, “The information that has become available since the last meeting of the Committee suggests that aggregate demand is growing at a moderate pace.” And, that, “Over time, the current accommodative stance of monetary policy, coupled with still robust underlying growth in productivity, should be sufficient to foster an improving business climate. However, considerable uncertainty persists about the extent and timing of the expected pickup in production and employment owing in part to the emergence of heightened geopolitical risks.”

“Consequently, 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 weighted mainly toward conditions that may generate economic weakness,” it concluded.