Consumed with speculation over who......>

US COMMENTS: Consumed with speculation over who will be the next leader of the

Federal Reserve, markets are giving relatively little attention to the November

Federal Open Market Committee meeting, in which the Fed is widely expected to

stand pat on interest rates.

- Officials are likely to continue their vigorous debate over whether another

rate increase is needed this year even as inflation remains short of their 2%

goal. But with the economy evolving broadly as expected and labor markets

tightening further in the past six weeks, there is little reason why the 12 FOMC

members who in September said they were prepared to move forward with another

hike this year would change their minds.

- Analysts surveyed by MNI expect the economy to have grown 2.7% in the third

quarter though estimates range widely between 1.9% and 3.3% due to uncertainty

over forecasts on government spending in the wake of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and

Maria.