Investors have increased bets that the Federal Reserve will cut US interest rates not once but twice this year, to counter concerns about slowing global economic growth that have been inflamed by the worsening US-China trade war.
The probability that the central bank will cut rates two or more times by the end of 2019 rose above 40 per cent on Tuesday, according to futures prices, exceeding for the first time expectations of a single cut.
The markets have been signalling a single rate cut this year for several months, even while the Fed has been keeping official policy on pause and maintained that its next move could be in either direction.