Pivotal Week for Markets: What to Expect From Fed Decision

News Analysis A recent blend of easing inflation rates and cooling labor market trends could force the Federal Reserve to pull the trigger on its first interest rate cut since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. central bankers will kick off their widely anticipated two-day policy meeting on Sept. 17, which could officially be the beginning of the end of an era of high interest rates. Last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told a Jackson Hole Economic Symposium audience of economists, monetary policymakers, and business leaders that “the time has come for policy to adjust.” After the economy endured 14 months of the highest interest rates in two decades, the financial markets are overwhelmingly betting that the institution will begin to trim the benchmark federal funds rate and signal that more cuts are coming in the home stretch of 2024 and into 2025....