WASHINGTON (AP) The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for the first time in a decade to try to counter the impact of President Donald Trumps trade wars, stubbornly low inflation and global weakness.
It left open the possibility of future rate cuts, but perhaps not as many as Wall Street had been hoping for. During a news conference, Chairman Jerome Powell struggled to find just the right words to articulate the Feds strategy and what might prompt future rate cuts at a time when the risk of a recession in the United States seems relatively low.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled to finish down 333 points, or 1.2%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.01% from 2.06% late Tuesday, a sharp drop.
The central bank reduced its benchmark rate which affects many loans for households and businesses by a quarter-point to a range of 2% to 2.25%. Its the first rate cut since December 2008 during the depths of the Great Recession, when the Fed slashed its rate to a record low near zero and kept it there until 2015. The economy is far healthier now despite risks to whats become the longest expansion on record.
But Powell stressed that the Fed is worried about the consequences of Trumps trade war and sluggish economies overseas.
Weak global growth and trade tensions are having an effect on the U.S. economy, he said.
Powell also said that sluggishness in some sectors of the U.S. economy, like manufacturing, along with inflation chronically below the Feds target level justify the insurance of a rate cut now.
Yet he struggled to explain clearly whether, why and by how much the Fed might further reduce rates.
Its not the beginning of a long series of rate cuts, he said. I didnt say its just one or anything like that. When you think about rate-cutting cycles, they go on for a long time, and the committee is not seeing that not seeing us in that place. You would do that if you saw real economic weakness.
Market analysts said it was no surprise that stock traders were disappointed.
Powell appeared very reluctant to suggest that additional rate cuts were likely, only doing so when he was asked if this cut was one and done, said Eric Winograd, senior U.S. economist at Alliance Bernstein. Even then, he emphasized that if there are additional cuts it would likely be a brief cycle.
Trump, who has repeatedly attacked the Fed for failing to cut rates aggressively, expressed irritation with its message Wednesday.
What the market wanted to hear from Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve was that this was the beginning of a lengthy and aggressive rate-cutting cycle which would keep pace with China, the European Union and other countries around the world, Trump tweeted. As usual, Powell let us down.
He added, We are winning any way, but I am certainly not getting much help from the Federal Reserve!
In addition to its rate cut, the Fed also announced that it would stop shrinking its enormous bond portfolio in August, two months earlier than planned. This step is intended to avoid putting upward pressure on long-term borrowing rates. The Fed had aggressively bought Treasury and mortgage bonds after the financial crisis to drive down long-term rates but had been gradually shrinking its balance sheet as the economy strengthened.
