In the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee minutes released Wednesday, several participants in the meeting said a 25 basis point cut would be a more gradual and predictable "path of normalization." Still, the majority of participants voted for a 50 bp cut.
"A substantial majority of participants supported lowering the target range for the federal funds rate by 50 basis points to 4-3/4 to 5 percent," the minutes read.
The FOMC meeting looked at CME FedWatch Futures Feder Funds Rate cut predictions and noted that as of a week before, a 50 BP cut was priced in as more likely. The FOMC surveys market makers in the Open Market Desk's Survey of Primary Dealers and Survey of Market Participants. In September's survey, respondents had not changed their median economic outlook or rate cut expectations- most expected moderate growth and a 25 bp cut. But, the median unemployment rate in the survey rose.
In the community economic outlook, the staff forecasted worse economic activity for the remainder of the year based on softening labor market conditions. The staff "marked down" its economic growth forecast based on softer-than-expected labor market growth.
The meeting also covered briefly the Japan "Carry Trade" volatility event, where financial institutions were borrowing money and trading equities under the low interest rate Japanese yen, and were startled when the Bank of Japan raised its rates and signaled it would raise again in the future.
