Federal Reserve officials judged at their latest meeting thattheir patient approach to interest-rate change would be appropriate“for some time,” and many sided with Chairman Jerome Powell's viewthat the recent dip in inflation was probably temporary.

“Members observed that a patient approach to determining futureadjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate wouldlikely remain appropriate for some time,” according to minutes ofthe Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC's) April 30–May 1meeting, released Wednesday in Washington.

U.S. stocks remained lower and Treasuries held gains, as theminutes reinforced the message from Powell's post-meeting pressconference, at which he said the level of interest rates wasappropriate for now and there wasn't a strong case to move ineither direction. The record also showed officials becoming moreoptimistic about the U.S. 2019 economic outlook before PresidentDonald Trump's decision to raise tariffs on Chinese imports. Theyalso had a debate about the future composition of the bondportfolio.