Federal Reserve 29 October 2025 - 5 November 2025

In the Fed’s highly anticipated late-October meeting, officials voted 10–2 to cut the federal funds rate by 0.25%, setting a new target range of 3.75% to 4.00%reuters.comfederalreserve.gov. This marked the second rate reduction of 2025, following a similar cut in September. The move was widely expected and intended “to temper any further weakening of the job market,” according to Reutersreuters.com. Recent data showed job growth losing steam and unemployment inching up, so the Fed acted to provide some stimulus to the economy.

The Federal Open Market Committee’s October 28–29 meeting concluded with a widely anticipated quarter-point rate cut, bringing the target interest rate down to roughly 3.8%ts2.tech. Economists were nearly unanimous in predicting this movereuters.com, as the Fed had telegraphed an easing bias in advance. It marks the second reduction in 2025, following an initial cut in September. The Fed is proceeding with caution, however. Officials describe an “increasingly cloudy” economic outlookapnews.com – a haze compounded by the absence of government data during the ongoing shutdown. Since October 1, key indicators like the monthly jobs report and inflation readings have been delayed or canceled, depriving policymakers of their usual guidesreuters.comapnews.com. Despite “flying blind” to some extent, the Fed opted to stick with its plan to ease policy in October, having judged at its September meeting that gradual rate cuts were likely needed in both October and Decemberapnews.com. The idea is that interest rates, which stood around 4.1% before this meeting, were high enough to be restraining economic growth, giving the Fed room to trim borrowing costs without stoking inflationapnews.comapnews.com.