After a turnaround in interest rates, the US Federal Reserve is counting on the high level of inflation easing over the course of the year.

The easing of the supply bottlenecks and also the less stimulative monetary policy should contribute to the easing of the price pressure, according to the minutes of the monetary policy meeting of January 26th published on Wednesday.

Monetary authorities agree that it will soon be appropriate to raise interest rates.

But they want to decide on the appropriate course from session to session and thus drive on sight.

Markets braced for an unusually large rate hike in March felt some relief at the minutes' balanced tone.

The probability of an aggressive rate hike of half a percentage point was estimated on the futures markets at less than 50 percent after the minutes were published.

While the Fed has signaled that it will raise interest rates at a faster rate than in its last hike cycle in 2015, the monetary authorities emphasized that the appropriate interest rate path will depend on economic and financial developments and also on the economic outlook.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has indicated a turnaround in interest rates for March and has prepared the financial markets for further upward moves.

The key rate is currently still in the range from zero to 0.25 percent.

But the Fed is under pressure to tighten the course in view of the rising inflation.

Consumer prices in January are 7,

The US Federal Reserve also wants to shrink its balance sheet, which had inflated to almost nine trillion dollars during the crisis.

As the minutes show, the Fed intends to start this downsizing once the "process of raising rates" has begun.

Some experts expect that after the first interest rate hikes, the Fed will then start in July to melt down its balance sheet, which had expanded significantly during the Corona crisis.

At the beginning of the year, the head of the Atlanta Federal Reserve District, Raphael Bostic, advocated melting at least $100 billion a month.

After the much-anticipated minutes, US bourses largely recouped losses on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial, which was down almost one percent before the publication of the so-called Minutes, ended the day down 0.16 percent at 34,934.27 points.

The Fed protocol did not fuel the already high expectations in terms of interest rate increases on the markets, said a stockbroker.

The market-wide S&P 500 closed 0.09 percent higher at 4475.01 points.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 0.12 percent to 14,603.64 points.

In early trading, the Ukraine conflict weighed on US stock markets.

The relief on Wall Street at signs of easing in the conflict has already evaporated.

According to NATO findings, Russia is continuing its troop deployment in the border area with Ukraine, contrary to other announcements.

The US government also sees no signs of an end to the Russian troop deployment on the border with Ukraine.

Kraft Heinz shares topped the S&P 500 with a premium of 5.6 percent. The food maker more than offset rising costs with higher prices for its products in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Course disaster for ViacomCBS

On the other hand, the shares of ViacomCBS experienced a course disaster, they collapsed by almost 18 percent.

The media group has recently grown strongly in the streaming business.

However, the investments for this growth are depressing the results.

Semiconductor manufacturer Analog Devices reported a decline in earnings for the fiscal first quarter, but still performed better than expected.

The course advanced by almost four percent.

The apartment broker Airbnb posted strong business growth at the end of the year despite the burden of the rampant coronavirus variant Omikron.

This caused the price to rise by 3.7 percent.

In their wake, the shares of the online travel portal Booking also rose by 2.6 percent.

Protocol supports the euro

Fed minutes weigh on US dollar and support euro.

The shared currency was trading at $1.1381 in late US trade.

The European Central Bank had previously set the reference rate at 1.1372 (Tuesday: 1.1345) dollars.

The dollar had thus cost 0.8794 (0.8815) euros.

On the US bond market, prices rose slightly after the Fed minutes.

The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) rose by 0.17 percent to 125.95 points.

In contrast, the yield on ten-year government bonds fell moderately to 2.03 percent.