Expecting a generally hawkish tone from this week's FOMC minutes - BofAML

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research discusses its expectations for this week's FOMC minutes. 

"The minutes of the November FOMC meeting will be released on Wednesday. We expect a generally hawkish tone as FOMC officials agree that the current stance of policy is sufficiently accommodative. The airwaves have recently been filled with comments from Fed officials, including from Fed Chair Powell's testimony to Congress. The Fed believes that rates have been cut enough to provide a cushion against negative shocks. We suspect that there will be a discussion in the minutes of whether the Fed has cut too much. Either way it will be clear that the majority of Fed officials think that policy is supportive. They will likely reiterate the message that there would need to be a "material reassessment" of the outlook in order to adjust rates in either direction. We may get a bit more perspective from the minutes on what constitutes such a change of view. In addition to the discussion about rates and the risks to the economy, we think Fed officials will also talk about the concerns over the implementation of policy, including the optimal size of the balance sheet," BofAML adds.