The U.S. central bank is expected to signal on Wednesday a faster wind-down of asset purchases, which could also bring closer a start to interest rate hikes. "The market's just trying to get ahead of that hawkish tone that they're expecting come Wednesday," said Jim Barnes, director of fixed income at Bryn Mawr Trust in Boston. The U.S. dollar 5-year forward inflation-linked swap USIL5YF5Y=R, seen by some as a better gauge of inflation expectations due to possible distortions caused by the Fed's quantitative easing, was last at 2.396%.