The Federal Reserve unanimously voted to cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage point on the heels of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
The Thursday decision will bring the benchmark federal-funds rate to a range between 4.5 percent and 4.75 percent, following a half-point cut in September. The central bank raised the rate to a range of 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent this summer, a 23-year high, in its effort to combat elevated inflation under the Biden-Harris administration.
Officials noted Thursday that inflation is on track to meet the central bank’s target of 2 percent and that rates remain high enough to temper economic activity, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"The committee judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance," the Federal Reserve said in a statement.
Wall Street’s major indexes soared to all-time highs on Wednesday, just hours after Trump became president-elect, Reuters reported. The surge was fueled largely by expectations of tax cuts, deregulation, and other pro-business policies under a second Trump administration.