Market Wire, North America

The Federal Reserve cut rates for a second time this year in a move best characterised as a “risk management” cut, as officials try to prevent nascent signs of a slowdown in labour markets from turning into a full-blown downturn. In a well-telegraphed and fully-priced decision, the Federal Open Market Committee voted along divided 10-to-2 lines to lower the target range for the federal funds rate to between 3.75 and 4.00 percent, with Trump appointee Stephen Miran dissenting from the majority in favour of a bigger move, while Jeffery Schmid elected to stay on hold. In the statement setting out...

Underlying consumer price growth decelerated in the United States last month, clearing the way for a second consecutive rate cut from the Federal Reserve at next week’s meeting, and putting downward pressure on the dollar. According to delayed data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning, the core consumer price index—with highly-volatile food and energy prices excluded—rose 0.2 percent in September, accelerating slightly from August’s 0.3-percent increase, and rising 3.0 percent on a year-over-year basis. This undershot consensus estimates among economists polled by the major data providers ahead of the release, and was the slowest pace recorded in...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell provided a clear signal that the central bank will soon resume cutting interest rates in a speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium this morning. “The balance of risks appears to be shifting,” Powell said at the central bank’s annual gathering in the Grand Teton National Park this morning, “In the near term, risks to inflation are tilted to the upside, and risks to employment to the downside—a challenging situation”. “Nonetheless, with policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance”. In his last appearance...