Markets are waiting on timing of the Federal Reserve's interest rate rise

Dealers expect the first rise in the cost of borrowing will be 17 June but weak economic data and a strong dollar could stay the Fed's hand

Forget the budget. The financial markets are not remotely interested in what George Osborne has got cooked up for Wednesday. Forget Greece. The money men assume Europe will find a way of kicking the can down the road, as it usually does.

No, what's really exercising the markets is the two-day meeting of the US Federal Reserve. And they are all a-flutter over one word: patient.