The FOMC cut its fed funds target rate range by 25bps as widely expected. The new range is 3.75–4%. The end of the policy of Quantitative Tightening was announced and is to be implemented on December 1st. So far so good in terms of expectations. And none of that mattered. It was Chair Powell’s press conference that rocked markets before handing over to mixed US tech earnings in the aftermarket (charts 1–4). In essence, what Powell and the FOMC did today was to deliberately open up optionality around the next policy decision on December 10th. The Committee was clearly uncomfortable with the fact fed funds futures were ... (full story)