Bank of America Merrill Lynch pares U.S. rate hike outlook for 2016

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Wednesday reduced its forecast for the number of times the Federal Reserve will raise U.S. interest rates this year to two from its earlier projection of three to four due to recent market turbulence.

The firm's global economist Ethan Harris said a second rate hike was not likely to happen until December following one in the first half of 2016.

"In light of recent market fragility, we expect them to wait until December for their second hike of the year rather than hike in both September and December," he wrote in a research note published on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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