FILE PHOTO: A man walks past the barred windows of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., October 4, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

(Reuters) - U.S. short-term interest rate futures on Wednesday pared earlier gains after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for a third time this year and signaled it would pause to assess any further need to ease policy.

Traders had nearly fully priced in the Fed’s decision to cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point to a range of 1.5% to 1.75%. They continue to price in one further rate cut next year, based on futures contracts traded at CME Group.