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Minutes from the July 31-August 1 meeting of the Federal Reserve are due for release at 2 p.m. Eastern. The focus will be on both the assessment of the economy as well as the possible ways in which the central bank could take action if it decided to launch a third round of quantitative easing.

Members of the Federal Reserve got closer to pushing the button on a new round of bond purchases even as a less aggressive step of altering language on a low-rate pledge seems to be in the works, according to minutes from the July 31-Aug. 1 meeting released Wednesday. “Many members judged that additional monetary accommodation would likely be warranted fairly soon unless incoming information pointed to a substantial and sustainable strengthening in the pace of the economic recovery,” the minutes said. The first alternative for action listed is essentially what the markets anticipated for the Aug. 1 meeting – a [...]

SYDNEY Australia’s central bank interest-rate-setting committee said at its August meeting that the Australian economy grew near its trend level in the June quarter, according to minutes of the committee’s last meeting, released Tuesday. Activity continued to vary significantly across industries, the Rerserve Bank of Australia members said, as resource investment evolved as forecast, and as the high Australian dollar and weak housing-market conditions weighed on other areas of the economy. “Members were informed that additional large resource projects had commenced or received approval in recent months, thereby sustaining the very large stock of work in the pipeline,” the minutes [...]

A few Fed officials thought that more asset purchases would be necessary at the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting in June, according to the minutes released on Wednesday. Several others said more action could be warranted if economic conditions deteriorated, the minutes showed. Only four Fed officials mentioned more quantitative easing in their individual forecasts, two in support of more easing and two saying they would consider it. Since the meeting, there has been weak reports for manufacturing and unemployment for June, which may have pushed more Fed officials to support more easing. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will discuss the outlook [...]