Traders Keep Bets on Fed Rate Hike Later This Month

U.S. short-term interest rate futures rose slightly on Friday after a government report showed hourly earnings fell in November, but traders largely kept bets intact on a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike later this month.

Before the release, which also showed a solid 178,000 jobs gained last month and an unemployment rate falling to 4.6 percent, traders saw about a 93 percent chance of a December rate hike, and were betting on at least one more rate hike in 2017.

The price of futures contracts tied to the Fed's benchmark policy rate moves inversely to the rate that traders expect at any given point in time.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)