Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that U.S. central bank officials are struggling to reach a consensus about what lies ahead for monetary policy and that financial markets should not assume another interest-rate cut will happen at the end of the year.

"In the committee's discussions at this meeting, there were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December," Powell said at a press conference following the close of the Federal Open Market Committee's policy meeting.

"A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone conclusion. Far from it, policy is not on a preset course," he said.