Fox News is reporting that interest rates have been cut by the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time since the start of the financial recession more than a decade ago, hoping to preserve the 11-year economic expansion from growing global uncertainties.
During its two-day meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee voted, as expected, to ease the benchmark federal funds rate by 25 basis points, ending an era of monetary policy tightening by policymakers, who have voted nine times — as recently as December — since 2015 to hike rates.
In approving the cut — the range is now between 2 percent and 2.25 percent — the U.S. central bank cited "the implications of global developments in the economic outlook as well as muted inflation pressures." Policymakers said they will continue to act "as appropriate" to sustain the economic expansion in weighing a potential future cut. Currently, traders are pricing in a 77 percent chance of a second quarter-percent cut during the FOMC's September meeting.
The cut will likely placate President Trump, who frequently belittles the Fed, and its chairman, Jerome Powell, for raising interest rates too high, too quickly. On Tuesday, ahead of the Fed's decision, Trump reiterated his criticisms, calling on the Fed to make a “large” rate cut.