US Fed likely to raise rates in Dec: BlackRock's Reider

[NEW YORK] The Federal Reserve will likely raise US interest rates at its December policy meeting after it decided to stick to its near-zero rate policy on Thursday, Rick Reider, a top bond manager at BlackRock said on Friday.

While there is some probability of the US central bank increasing rates at its next policy meeting on Oct 27-28, it would be "hard" for Fed Chair Janet Yellen and other policy-makers to make such a move, Mr Reider, BlackRock's chief investment officer of fundamental fixed income, said at a press briefing.

The futures market implied traders see only a 14 per cent chance of a Fed rate hike in October and 42 per cent chance in December, according to CME's FedWatch program.

Meanwhile, Heidi Richardson, BlackRock's iShares US investment strategist, said there were notable inflows into its iShares long-dated Treasuries, short-term credit and floating-rate exchange-traded funds following the Fed's rate decision on Thursday.

REUTERS