Fed Powell: Federal Reserve Cuts Rates For Second-Straight Time To Lowest Level in Three Years |N18G

WATCH: Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates, But Less Than President Trump Wants | CNBC TV18
Powell says that “higher tariffs are pushing up prices on some categories of goods.” Data from last week showed that prices on goods including furniture and apparel, had increased as companies pass through some tariff-related costs to consumers.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered interest rates for the second time this year in a continued bid to prevent unemployment from surging. Fed officials voted for another quarter-point rate cut, lowering their benchmark lending rate to a range between 3.75% and 4%, the lowest in three years.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference after releasing the U.S. Fed
All eyes will be on the Federal Reserve's rate outcome, which is expected today. A CNBC survey of respondents expects a rate cut in this meeting, with the majority of respondents expecting a rate cut also in December.
Wall Street this afternoon will be focused on quarterly earnings reports from Alphabet (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META). Investors will turn to results from Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) on Thursday. Those five companies —- in addition to Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) — have accounted for roughly 46% of the S&P 500’s gains this year, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
The easy part for the Federal Reserve on Wednesday will be announcing a widely anticipated interest rate cut when it wraps up its two-day policy meeting. The hard part will be taking care of other details that are presenting substantial challenges to policymaking these days.
The Federal Reserve is poised to cut its key interest rate for the second time this year. Mixed economic signals from a weakening job market, stubborn inflation and roaring AI investments force the central bank into a dilemma.
When Powell last month announced the Fed's first rate cut of 2025, he signaled the central bank was growing increasingly concerned about a sharp slowdown in the labor market. "In this less dynamic and somewhat softer labor market, the downside risks to employment appear to have risen," he said in September.
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