Traders add to bets the Fed won't hike rates until late 2014

By simon yao | July 06 2012 10:45 AM

Futures traders added to bets that the Federal Reserve will keep short-term interest rates near zero until the end of 2014 after the U.S. government reported employers added fewer workers than expected in June.

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U.S. non-farm payrolls expanded by just 80,000 jobs in June, short of economists' forecasts and not enough to bring down the country's high 8.2 percent unemployment rate.

Fed fund futures, tied to the overnight lending rate between banks, ticked up after the report, signaling traders see the Fed first hiking rates in the fourth quarter of 2014, either at its October or its December meeting.

Traders of the contracts saw about a 55 percent chance that the Fed will raise rates in October of 2014, and about the same chance it will do so in December 2014.