The Federal Reserve is widely expected to reduce the target range for its benchmark rate to 3.75%-4% later Wednesday. It would be the second small easing step in a row. Fed Chair Jerome Powell and a majority of his colleagues favor easing to try to keep the labor market from weakening further.

The Federal Reserve will almost certainly cut its key interest rate on Wednesday and could signal it expects another cut in December as the central bank seeks to bolster hiring

Concerns about a weakening labor market may outweigh worries about rising inflation, tipping the Fed toward another rate cut, economists say.

If the Fed raises interest rates as a means of protecting against tariff-induced inflation, it risks tipping the economy into a downturn. On the other hand, if the Fed lowers rates to stimulate the economy in the face of a hiring slowdown,

The Federal Reserve is expected to cut its short-term rate Wednesday for the second time this year despite an increasingly cloudy view of the economy it is trying to influence. The government shutdown has cut off the flow of data that the Fed relies on to track employment,

The government shutdown means the latest job numbers haven't been released, but the Fed is still likely to cut.

The Federal Reserve is almost certain to cut its target range to 3.75 to 4 per cent when it meets on October 29 amid continued signs of labour market slack. With