A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Rocky Swift

After weeks of market gyration and agonising over every speck of U.S. data, the day is finally upon us when the Federal Reserve delivers its appraisal of how much stimulus the world’s biggest economy needs to keep humming along.

Markets have priced in a near certainty the Fed will cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to the 4.00%-4.25% range today. But they also anticipate the U.S. central bank will go further with nearly 150 basis points of easing through the end of next year.

So all eyes will be on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments as well as the central bank’s “dot plot” of economic projections, all due after markets close in the United States.

Expectations of a dovish take from the Fed,

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