MANY of Wall Street’s biggest banks are more convinced the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in June after a strong February jobs report Friday pointed to sustained economic growth and as the jobless rate hit a more than 6-1/2-year low.

    Nine of 16 primary dealers, or the banks that deal directly with the Fed, said they expect a June lift-off date, compared to 10 of 19 who predicted the rate hike in a Feb. 6 poll. All but one expect more than one rate hike in 2015.

    Though just over half the economists polled predicted a mid-year rate hike, six dealers polled said their conviction that the Fed would raise rates in three months time had increased in the last month.

    The median expectation for where the federal funds rate will end the year was 0.88 percent for 2015 and 2.38 percent for 2016, compared to 0.75 percent and 2.13 percent, respectively, in the February Reuters poll.

    The Fed has held rates near zero since the 2008 financial crisis, having ended its bond-buying program in October. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has reiterated that policymakers will remain “patient” in deciding when to raise rates, which she defined in December and January as a “couple” of meetings.

    (SD-Agencies)