For the first time since last year, the Federal Reserve is lowering interest rates. The Fed cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to between 4% and 4.25%.

Financial experts have been anticipating these cuts for some time, and the belief is there will be two more cuts by the end of the year.

"The reason the Federal Reserve is cutting rates is because we are seeing basically flat employment market situation," explained Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College. "Almost no growth in employment now for several months."

Bethune said companies were hit by tariffs but began absorbing the cost increases rather than raising prices. He says this gave the Federal Reserve room to reduce the rate, however, to save money, companies curbed hiring or cut jobs.

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