Wall Street Journal (04/16/15) Jon Hilsenrath

Soft economic data has fostered uncertainty at the U.S. Federal Reserve about when to begin increasing short-term interest rates. Recent economic reports showed a slowdown in U.S. hiring in March, weak growth in consumer spending, a large decline in industrial output, and softer-than-anticipated home building, reinforcing a view the economy downshifted in the first quarter and didn’t have great momentum moving into the second. Fed officials are hoping to see improvement in the labor market and want to be confident inflation is rising toward their 2% target before they raise rates from near zero.