The US Federal Reserve held its sixth meeting of 2025 from Tuesday (September 16) to Wednesday (September 17) amid slowing growth in the country’s jobs market.
The central bank met analysts’ expectations by lowering the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to the 4 to 4.25 percent range. It marks the first cut of 2025, after holding at the 4.25 to 4.5 percent range since December 2024.
Despite August consumer price index (CPI) data showing inflation rose to 2.9 percent from 2.7 percent in July, a weakening labor market became the focus of the Fed’s dual mandate of stable prices and maximum employment.
“The case for a persistent inflation outbreak is less, and that’s why we think it’s time for us to acknowledge the risks to the other mandate have grown, and we should move in the direction of neutral,” said Chair Jerome Powell.
The most recent US jobs report indicates that August brought an increase of just 22,000 new workers, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3 percent from 4.2 percent in July. Additionally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produced the report, announced a downward revision to June’s figures, showing a loss of 13,000 jobs.
Similarly, July’s report, released on August 1, marked a significant weakening in the labor force, bringing the three month average to just 28,000 new jobs after growth of 192,000 in the February to April period.
Following that report, US President Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, suggesting the jobs data was “rigged” to make his administration look bad. Both the slowing American labor market and rising inflation over the past few months have been blamed on the effects of Trump’s tariffs trickling into the economy.
Trump has been critical of the Fed and Powell in particular, saying they haven’t moved quickly enough to lower rates.
While he is unable to remove Powell, in August Trump attempted to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud stemming from mortgage applications where she listed two homes as principal residences. Recent documents have shown those allegations to be false, and that Cook listed one of the homes as a vacation property.
On Monday (September 15), an appeals court blocked Cook’s removal from the Fed’s Board of Governors, allowing her to participate in this week’s meeting. Also this week, the Senate confirmed Stephen Miran to the board in a 48 to 47 decision along party lines. He will be replacing Adriana Kugler, who resigned in August.
Miran is on leave from his position at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers and increases Trump’s influence over the seven member board. The nomination process for a new board member usually lasts months, but Miran’s appointment took just six weeks, allowing him to participate in this week’s meeting.
The gold price rose to a record high of US$3,707.34 per ounce shortly after the decision, but quickly fell back to the US$3,650 level. Silver spiked as high as US$42.24 per ounce following the meeting, still trading near 14 year highs.
Equities were mixed on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:INX) losing 0.31 percent to reach 6,586. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq-100 (INDEXNASDAQ:NDX) shed 1.03 percent to come in at 24,036, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:DJI) gained 0.5 percent, coming to 45,084.
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.