The Federal Reserve's December interest rate cut expectations have cooled sharply, and there are no key data to refer to before the officials' meeting

Traders expect the Federal Reserve to be more likely to hold off on a rate cut at its December policy meeting after the Bureau of Labor said it would not release its October jobs report. There was a wave of selling in the federal funds futures market after the Bureau of Labor confirmed there was not enough data to release the report. Traders scaled back expectations for a 25 basis point rate cut at the December 10 meeting. They now expect the Fed to maintain its base rate in a range of 3.75% to 4%. The swap market, which is tied to the Fed's policy rate, is currently pricing in a rate cut of just 6 basis points for the December meeting, compared with a cumulative rate cut of only 19 basis points through January. Before Wednesday, the swap market was priced at 11 basis points, which equates to about a 50-50 chance that the Fed will cut rates in three weeks. Leah Traub, portfolio manager at Lord Abbet, said: "We knew for a long time that there would be no unemployment data for October, but the November data won't be released until after the Fed meeting, which should be disappointing news for the market. That makes a rate cut less likely given the FOMC split."