A handful of Federal Reserve officials on Monday left open the door to additional large interest-rate cuts, noting that current rates still weigh heavily on the US economy.

Since the 1970s, the performance of the S&P 500 has been slightly below average in the 12 months after the first interest rate cut of an easing cycle. But the index's performance has been far above average when rates have been lowered outside of a recession.

Money market funds are hesitant to buy longer-term Treasury bills even though the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a half percentage point last week.