(Recasts with Fed meeting minutes) By Karen Brettell NEW YORK, Aug 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury yields fell on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July meeting showed that Fed officials felt the employment benchmark for decreasing support for the economy "could be reached this year," but had not yet been satisfied. "Most participants anticipated that the economy would continue to make progress toward those goals" and that the standard "could be reached this year," but there was disagreement over how soon the Fed should wait to reduce bond purchases. “There wasn’t a lot in there,” said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. “The financial, market and economic support reasons for continuing bond purchases are fading a little bit with normalizing inflation and a stronger labor market, and so it stands to reason that the policymakers will begin reducing those purchases relatively soon.” Benchmark 10-year notes were last 1.271%, after rising to a session high of 1.300% before the minutes were released. Many analysts and economists expect the Fed to announce a taper in December, with bond purchase reductions likely to begin in early 2022. “It’s clear from the minutes that the Fed isn’t ready to start tapering yet, but they are leaning towards making an announcement by the end of the year at the latest,” Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer for Independent Advisor Alliance, said in a note. August 18 Wednesday 2:44PM New York / 1844 GMT Price Current Net Yield % Change (bps) Three-month bills 0.06 0.0608 -0.013 Six-month bills 0.05 0.0507 -0.002 Two-year note 99-210/256 0.2175 0.002 Three-year note 99-214/256 0.4303 0.005 Five-year note 99-72/256 0.7733 0.009 Seven-year note 99-170/256 1.0502 0.010 10-year note 99-204/256 1.2717 0.014 20-year bond 107-60/256 1.8123 0.000 30-year bond 101-224/256 1.9175 -0.002 DOLLAR SWAP SPREADS Last (bps) Net Change (bps) U.S. 2-year dollar swap 9.25 0.00 spread U.S. 3-year dollar swap 10.00 -0.25 spread U.S. 5-year dollar swap 8.25 0.25 spread U.S. 10-year dollar swap 1.00 0.25 spread U.S. 30-year dollar swap -28.50 1.25 spread (Reporting by Karen Brettell; Editing by Will Dunham and Nick Zieminski) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.