"With slightly softer data and less ‘time on the clock,’ a rate increase this year now looks a bit less certain," Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman, wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. "While this is just one indicator, the surprise was meaningful, and there may have been some Fed officials feeling lukewarm on a September hike to begin with."

The central bank meets Sept. 20-21 after officials have stood pat on rates this year and twice pared projections for the path of increases. San Francisco Fed President John Williams on Tuesday said the U.S. economy is “in good shape and headed in the right direction” without indicating whether he was leaning one way or another regarding a rate increase.

 

Eoin Treacy's view

With a wall of debt that needs to be either retired or refinanced coming due in the next few years the Fed is understandably cautious about raising rates without robust economic growth to swell government coffers. In fact since monetary easing has not quite achieved the growth rates envisioned by central bankers, the case for fiscal stimulus is growing, regardless of the potential for it to create a bigger problem later. 

The US 10-year yield unwound most of a short-term overextension relative to the trend mean over the last month but is now testing the progression of higher reaction lows. A sustained move below 1.5% would confirm resistance in the 1.65% area and open up potential for a retest of the all-time low near 1.3%.