After sharply raising rates to fight inflation, the Federal Reserve is signaling it will cut rates at a more measured pace. After a larger-than-usual 0.5 percentage point cut in September, the central bank’s rate-setting committee last week cut the benchmark rate by a further 0.25 percentage point. The Federal Reserve’s benchmark federal funds rate affects … Read more
The Federal Reserve just announced another rate cut. But will it matter to nervous homebuyers waiting for mortgage rates to fall? On Thursday, at the end of its November meeting, the Fed announced a 0.25 percentage point cut to the federal funds rate, or the rate at which banks lend each other money overnight. The … Read more
Between the hurricanes and a strike by tens of thousands of Boeing workers, economists had low expectations for the October jobs report released Friday. TThe data fell short of even those low expectations, showing that the U.S. added just 12,000 jobs for the month instead of the 100,000 expected. “It was a confusing report,” said … Read more