WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said economic recovery had lost momentum so far this year, but stopped short of offering new monetary stimulus even as it signaled further bond buys could be in store.

Fed officials described the economy as having “decelerated somewhat,” and reiterated their disappointment with the slow pace of progress in bringing down the nation’s 8.2 percent jobless rate.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday offered a gloomy view of the economy’s prospects, but provided few concrete clues on whether the U.S. central bank was moving closer to a fresh round of monetary stimulus.

Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee the economic recovery was being held back by anxiety over Europe’s debt crisis and the path of U.S. fiscal policy, and he expressed unease over a stagnant jobs market.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve stands ready to offer additional monetary support to a U.S. economy that has slowed significantly in recent months, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers on Tuesday.

He told the Senate Banking Committee the recovery was being held back by tighter financial conditions due to Europe’s debt crisis and uncertainty surrounding U.S. fiscal policy.

JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) – A voting member of the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting body said on Friday he has edged closer to supporting another round of quantitative easing if the sluggish economy can’t shake its doldrums.

“My support for the current stance of policy rests on a forecast that sees a step-up of output and employment growth by year-end and into 2013,” Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart told a business group.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve is open to the possibility of buying more bonds to stimulate the economy, but conditions might need to worsen for a consensus to build, minutes from the central bank’s June meeting released on Wednesday showed.

The Fed in June decided to expand its latest effort to keep long-term rates low, announcing that it would buy an additional $267 billion in long-term bonds with proceeds from short-term notes.

NEW YORK/LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) – Federal Reserve officials on Friday said they were keeping an eye out for any signs that slowing growth is raising deflation risks but differed on how worrisome sluggish job markets are for the modest U.S. economic recovery.

New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley, a close ally of the U.S. central bank’s chairman, Ben Bernanke, said he had modestly lowered his expectations for inflation in coming months.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A much weaker-than-expected U.S. labor market alongside escalating financial turmoil in Europe raised Wall Street’s expectations the Federal Reserve will intervene to protect the fragile U.S. economic recovery, according to a Reuters poll.

The median of forecasts from 15 primary dealers – the large financial institutions that do business directly with the Fed – showed a 50 percent chance the central bank would eventually launch another round of quantitative easing, known as QE3.

WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) – A U.S. House of
Representatives panel on Wednesday approved a measure that would
allow an audit of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy
decisions, a level of scrutiny the central bank says would
compromise its independence.

The measure was proposed by Republican Representative Ron
Paul, a long-time critic of the central bank, and has 257
co-sponsors, more than half of all House members.

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve on
Wednesday delivered another round of monetary stimulus and said
it was ready to do even more to help an increasingly fragile
U.S. economic recovery.

The central bank expanded its “Operation Twist” by $267
billion, meaning it will sell that amount of short-term
securities to buy longer-term ones to keep long-term borrowing
costs down. The program, which was due to expire this month,
will now run through the end of the year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Wednesday extended its monetary stimulus to a U.S. economic recovery that looks at risk of stalling, renewing its effort to depress borrowing costs by selling short-term bonds to buy longer-dated ones.

Expressing concern about strains in global financial markets emanating from Europe, the Fed said it was extending its Operation Twist program by buying $267 billion (170.4 billion pounds) in longer-dated securities by the end of 2012. The Fed’s first Twist programme was set to end this month.