The Federal Reserve delivered its first interest-rate cut of the year on Wednesday and bolstered hopes for further rate cuts in October and December. After the 2 p.m. ET policy statement, the S&P 500 traded fractionally higher in afternoon stock market action as Fed chief Jerome Powell painted a cautiously upbeat picture of where the economy stands. What Wall Street really wanted to know was whether the Fed saw this as the first cut of a bunch or whether we could quickly be back in wait-and-see mode.
