Fed may announce rate cut today

When it previously met in late July, the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time since America’s financial system stood on the edge of collapse more than a decade ago.

On Wednesday, the Fed is widely expected to announce a second rate cut just before Chairman Jerome Powell holds a news conference. Its latest policy meeting comes against the backdrop of a solid if vulnerable US economy now in its 11th year of expansion.

A global slowdown and economic threats posed by President Donald Trump’s trade conflicts have led the Fed to pursue rate cuts to try to prolong the expansion. Investors have welcomed the prospect of rate cuts even though most analysts don’t think looser credit will provide much stimulus at a time when borrowing rates are already low.