Investors Move Closer to Fed View on Timing, Pace of Rate Rises

Investors digesting the best U.S. jobs report in almost three years are coming around to the view of Federal Reserve officials who say that a strengthening economy will warrant higher interest rates starting in mid-2015.

As the U.S. economy powers ahead, bringing the central bank closer to its first interest-rate increase since 2006, market signals in recent weeks showed investors were more skeptical than Fed officials about when and how fast the tightening will come. Today’s employment figures closed some, though not all, of that gap.