Golden Finance reported that Nick Timiraos, the "Federal Reserve mouthpiece," said that the Fed voted to cut interest rates by 50BP, the first rate cut since 2020, marking a bold start to the rate cut. Eleven of the 12 Fed voting members supported the rate cut, bringing the benchmark federal funds rate down to a range of 4.75% to 5%. Quarterly forecasts released on Wednesday showed that most officials expect to cut interest rates by at least 25BP at meetings in November and December. The rate cut decision puts the Fed firmly into a new phase: trying to prevent last year's rate hikes (which pushed borrowing costs to a two-decade high) from further weakening the U.S. labor market.