Traders in financial markets piled into bets that the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, fresh from last week's quarter-percentage-point rate cut, will go ahead with another reduction in borrowing costs at its Dec. 17-18 meeting.

The Labor Department on Wednesday reported that consumer prices in October rose 2.6% from a year earlier. That marks a pickup in the pace of inflation from September, when prices were up 2.4% on the year.