July 16 (Reuters) - Brokerages have amped up expectations of an interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve in September after an unexpected drop in consumer prices in June shored up policymakers' confidence in their fight against inflation.
The consumer price index dipped 0.1% in June, while economists had forecast a 0.1% rise.
The Fed held interest rates steady at 5.25-5.50% since last July.
After the June CPI data, J.P.Morgan, Macquarie and Deutsche Bank brought forward their expectations of the first cut to September. Barclays now expects two cuts this year instead of one, the first cut in September, followed by another in December.
Compiled by the Broker Research team in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Varun H K, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Sohini Goswami