Fed officials’ current view of the labor market could be one of the most important takeaways from Powell’s press conference Thursday, said James Ragan, director of asset management research at DA Davidson.

“The most important thing he can talk about is the labor market, because we had that hurricane-impacted number for October. Obviously a weak figure, but I think the markets took it into account a lot because of the hurricane impact. So I’d like to hear him. talk a little bit beyond that data,” Ragan told CNBC.

The nonfarm payrolls report for October showed a gain of only 12,000 jobs. However, storms and a since-resolved strike by Boeing workers could have temporarily lowered that number, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

— Jesse Pond

With the Federal Reserve expected to cut a quarter point on Thursday, the most important event for markets will likely be Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference at 2 p.m. ET.

Traders will be hunting for clues from Powell on the future path of interest rate policy. Fed funds futures trading points to about a 63% chance that the central bank will make another quarter-point cut in December, but traders are also weighing the likelihood that policymakers will opt to skip that month.

Even more complexity lies ahead for the central bank as Donald Trump wins a second visit to the White House this week. That’s because the new administration’s plans include tax cuts and tariffs, which could impact the Fed’s moves to reduce inflation.

Read more about the Fed’s November meeting from CNBC’s Jeff Cox here.

—Darla Mercado

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Thursday, taking another step toward easing its tight policy stance.

That’s why consumer interest rates have moved significantly since the Fed began its rate-hike campaign in March 2022 — and in some corners of the market, interest rates have cooled somewhat since the central bank made its first half-point cut in September.

According to Bankrate, the interest rate on a $30,000 home line of credit is 8.7% as of the week of November 1. That’s down from 9.25% the week of September 13, but still significantly higher than the 4.27% in March 2022.

Credit card rates stood at 20.5% last week, per bank rate, up sharply from 16.34% in March 2022. But they are slightly cooler compared to last month’s 20.78% rate.

The interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 7.09% as of the week of November 1, up sharply from 4.29% in March 2022. However, it is also higher compared to the week of September 13, when the interest was 6.12. %.

This is because the mortgage interest rate loosely follows the interest rate Interest on 10-year government bondswhich recently went a step higher. The benchmark return was 4.363% in the week of November 1, significantly higher than the 3.649% traded in mid-September.

–Darla Mercado, Nick Wells

Traders went into Thursday’s Fed meeting convinced a rate cut was coming, but became increasingly uncertain about what would happen in December.

The Fed Fund Futures market pointed to a 100% chance that policymakers would ease, with only a slim chance that the cut would reach half a percentage point as in September. The market-implied odds were about 99% for a quarter-point move, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tracker of 30-day Fed Fund futures contracts.

For December, the chances of a break are increasing — at 32.6% as of Thursday afternoon, up about 8 percentage points from a week ago. If the Fed doesn’t skip December, the chance of that happening in January is about 68%, according to the CME gauge.

—Jeff Cox