US Fed expected to cut rates as job market weakens: Check date, time, where to watch Jerome Powell’s speech

The US Federal Reserve is expected to cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point Wednesday, as policymakers seek to shore up a weakening job market and guard against an economic slowdown.

If approved, the move would mark the central bank’s second rate cut in six weeks, following months of holding rates steady to tame inflation. While prices are still rising faster than the Fed’s comfort zone, the focus has shifted toward preventing a sharper rise in unemployment.

A number of major employers have announced layoffs in recent weeks. Amazon said it would eliminate 14,000 corporate jobs, Target plans to cut about 1,000 positions and keep another 800 vacant, and the federal government has shed roughly 100,000 jobs so far this year.

The Fed’s decision-making process has been complicated by a government shutdown, which has delayed the release of key economic data, including the September jobs report. The Labor Department’s September jobs report is nearly a month overdue, and it remains unclear whether October’s figures will be compiled at all.

A lone government report last week showed inflation in September rose slightly less than expected, a sign that price pressures may be easing even as hiring stalls.

“My focus is on the labor market,” Fed Governor Chris Waller earlier this month.

Waller added that while President Donald Trump’s tariffs are putting upward pressure on prices, he does not see them leading to long-term inflation.

With limited government data available, economists are turning to private indicators. Payroll processor ADP reported a modest uptick in private-sector hiring for mid-October, but its figures often diverge from the official government counts.

The Fed is facing a policy bind: raising rates could help counter inflation but risks deepening job losses, while cutting them could spur growth at the cost of fueling prices again. The federal funds rate currently sits between 4% and 4.25%, still high after the aggressive pandemic-era rate hikes.

“It’s a challenging situation when our goals are in tension like this,” Chair Jerome Powell said last month.

Global and market reaction

Global markets traded higher ahead of the Fed’s decision. In India, the Sensex gained 369 points to close at 84,997, while the Nifty rose 118 points to 26,054, tracking optimism over a possible U.S. rate cut. Japan’s Nikkei surged over 2% to another record high, while Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were little changed.

“In the absence of fresh data, policymakers are effectively acting half-blind,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote Bank. “But the market widely expects a 25-basis-point rate cut.”

Tech shares led gains on Wall Street, with Microsoft climbing 2% to once again top a $4 trillion valuation, joining Nvidia in the elite club of trillion-dollar tech firms. Amazon rose 1% despite announcing layoffs, as investors cheered its renewed focus on artificial intelligence.

Date, time and where to watch Powell’s speech

The Fed’s two-day policy meeting began Tuesday, October 28, and will conclude Wednesday, October 29, when officials release their decision at 2 pm Eastern time (11:30 pm IST).

Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 pm Eastern (12 am IST on Thursday) to discuss the decision and the Fed’s economic outlook. The event will be livestreamed on the Federal Reserve’s official website at federalreserve.gov and on its YouTube channel.