Fed Officials Lean Against Expectations of Half-Point Increase in March

Federal Reserve officials pushed back Friday against the prospect that they would start raising interest rates next month with a larger half-percentage-point increase in their benchmark rate.

Recent data pointing to stronger hiring, consumer spending and inflationary pressures had prompted investors in bond and interest-rate futures markets to place growing probabilities on a larger rate increase at the Fed’s next meeting, on March 15-16. The Fed typically raises rates in smaller, quarter-percentage-point increments and has not made a larger increase since 2000.