Facing Trump's pressure, the Fed is likely to cut rates for the first time this year

The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point Wednesday in an effort to prop up the sagging U.S. job market. The move comes as Fed policymakers face mounting pressure from the White House.

Investors are betting the central bank will lower its benchmark rate to a range of 4% to 4.25%. That would be the first such cut in nine months, amid signs of a substantial slowdown in the pace of hiring. Fed policymakers signaled in June that they expected to cut rates by an average of half a percentage point by the end of this year.

President Donald Trump wants much lower interest rates, and he has been waging a high-pressure campaign to exert more control over the central bank — bypassing safeguards designed to insulate the Fed from political pressure.

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