Markets widely expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates for the fourth time this year at its December meeting. The question is what the central bank will do next year. Recent sticky inflation prints and evidence the US economy is growing at a solid pace have raised doubts that the Fed will bring down rates as quickly as it previously

The last two Fed meetings resulted in rate cuts. Short-term CD rates have continued to lower, but some long-term CD rates are rising back up again.

Powell just a week after the meeting said the economy was "not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates."

The account of the central bank’s Nov. 6-7 meeting, released on Tuesday, showed that Fed officials still planned to cut interest rates further. But with the job market holding up better than expected and the economy growing at a solid clip, they are in no rush to slash them rapidly.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that interest rates are still expected to decline further, but suggested they might not be that much lower over the next few months.

October's Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures changes in the cost of consumer goods and services, showed that annual inflation rose by 2.6%. That's not an alarmingly high rate of inflation. It's also only a modest uptick from September's CPI reading, which measured annual inflation at 2.4%.

Gold prices rose on Thursday after slowing U.S. inflation data released in the last session firmed bets on a Federal Reserve rate cut next month. Spot gold was up 0.4% to $2,645.67 per ounce, as of 1024 GMT.