Boston Fed President Susan Collins said it was too soon to say whether the Fed should cut interest rates next month.

Fed watchers see a greater chance the central bank may skip a rate cut at its last meeting of the year in December.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee on Friday signaled he feels the U.S. central bank will likely end up cutting the policy rate by another quarter of a percentage point this year and a full percentage point further next year,

Traders see an interest-rate cut next month as a coin toss as resilient economic data empowers Federal Reserve officials to take a potentially more-cautious approach to easing.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that interest rates are still expected to decline further, but suggested they might not be that much lower over the next few months.

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Strong U.S. economic and inflation data continue to reshape the debate among Federal Reserve policymakers over the pace and extent of interest rate cuts as investors on Friday further downgraded their expectations for a rate reduction at the central bank's December meeting.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Susan Collins said a December interest-rate cut remains on the table, emphasizing the central bank’s decision will be guided by incoming data.

The Fed has two main objectives: maintain maximum employment and contain inflation. Although one single data point is never decisive, when inflation is high, the Fed generally raises interest rates to slow demand. When the unemployment rate is high, the Fed often lowers interest rates to stimulate consumer activity.

Chair Jerome Powell says the Federal Reserve will likely cut its key interest rate slowly and deliberately in the coming months, in part because inflation has shown signs of persistence and the Fed’s

Global stock markets mostly struggled Friday after US Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell indicated a slower pace of interest-rate cuts.