Economy
The Fed is expected to cut interest rates again Thursday. Here’s everything you need to know

Published Wed, Nov 6 2024 • 2:33 PM EST | Updated An Hour Ago
thumbnail
Jeff Cox
@jeff.cox.7528
@JeffCoxCNBCcom

Key Points
• The Federal Reserve likely will stick to the business at hand when it wraps up its meeting Thursday with another interest rate cut.
• Market attention probably will turn to what Chair Jerome Powell has to say about the future.
• In keeping with policymakers’ historical desire to stay above the political fray, Powell likely will avoid direct commentary about what to expect from President-elect Donald Trump.

The Federal Reserve likely will stick to the business at hand when it wraps up its meeting Thursday with another interest rate cut, but will have its eye on the future against a backdrop that suddenly has gotten a lot more complicated.

Financial markets are pricing in a near-certainty that the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee will lower its benchmark borrowing cost by a quarter percentage point as it seeks to “recalibrate” policy for an economy that is seeing the inflation rate moderate and the labor market soften.

The focus, though, will turn to what’s ahead for Chair Jerome Powell and his Fed colleagues as they navigate a shifting economy — and the political earthquake of Donald Trump’s stunning victory in the presidential race.

“We think Powell will refuse to give any early judgment on the implications of the election for the economy and rates, and will seek to be a source of stability and calm,” Krishna Guha, head of global policy and central bank strategy at Evercore ISI, said in a note issued before the election’s outcome was known.

{snip}