WASHINGTON, July 30 -- Three Federal Reserve officials on Tuesday did something that happens rarely enough to move the bond market when it does: they put their names, formally, into the committee record demanding a rate increase that their chairman had no intention of granting.

The Federal Open Market Committee voted 9 to 3 to leave the federal funds rate at 3.50 to 3.75 percent, holding steady for a seventh consecutive meeting. Beth Hammack of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Neel Kashkari of Minneapolis, and Lorie Logan of Dallas all voted against the majority, each formally preferring a quarter-percentage-point increase. It was the first time since 2016 that three FOMC members had dissented in the same direction on a single poli...