Stocks fell on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve made the widely expected decision to cut interest rates by a quarter point at the central bank’s December policy meeting. Central bank officials also halved their average forecast for spending cuts by 2025.
The Federal Open Market Committee said it would lower its target for the federal funds rate to a range between 4.25% and 4.5%. The central bank had already cut interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point earlier this year.
Fed-funds futures in recent weeks suggested that Wall Street saw another rate cut as a certainty.
