(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Thursday as policymakers took note of a job market that has “generally eased” while inflation continues to move towards the U.S. central bank’s 2% target.
“Economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace,” the central bank’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said at the end of a two-day policy meeting in which officials lowered the benchmark overnight interest rate to the 4.50%-4.75% range, as widely expected. The decision was unanimous.
MARKET REACTION:
STOCKS: The S&P 500 held a 0.66% gain after the news
BONDS: The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose to 4.353%. The 2-year note yield rose to 4.2347%
FOREX: The dollar index pared a loss to -0.54% with the euro up 0.48%.
COMMENTS:
THOMAS HAYES, CHAIRMAN, GREAT HILL CAPITAL, NEW YORK
“It was right on schedule, and it was key that they followed through with market expectations despite the results of the election. Because if they had walked back the expectation to cut, it would have been perceived as political. So what they basically asserted is that (1) they are an apolitical organization and they follow through as planned and (2) they are fully cognizant of the dual-sided risk related to the labor market and continuing towards the neutral rate will alleviate any risks to the labor market unraveling.”
BEN VASKE, SENIOR INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, ORION PORTFOLIO SOLUTIONS, OMAHA, NEBRASKA
“As expected, the FOMC announced a 25-basis point cut today, marking a reduction in their aggression relative to the September cut. Notably, longer term rates have been on a steep upward trajectory since the first cut, and have begun to decline post announcement today. With a backdrop of economic strength in the U.S., the path forward will likely be more complex for the Fed than a steady pace of cutting.”
ELLEN HAZEN, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, F.L.PUTNAM INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, WELLESLEY, MASSACHUSETTS
“So this was a big non-surprise result. You can see that in both the 10-year and the S&P, both of them are pretty much exactly where they were. So the market was not surprised by this at all, but the key question, which is a lot of the policies that have been announced are very likely to be inflationary. And the questions to ask Powell at the press conference will be whether or not he and the committee will start to look to policies rather than data so that they’re not behind the curve, particularly given that ignoring fiscal policy back in 2021-2022 arguably allowed inflation to get unexpectedly high before they had to step in. If they had reacted to fiscal policy back then, inflation presumably wouldn’t have been as high. So it’s a very big question.