Ahead of Fed’s final meeting of 2024, all eyes on the gifts that Powell might dole out

LAST Christmas, the US Federal Reserve gave the stock market a change of heart. This year, to save economists from tears, the central bank is going to do something special – it is going to pause.

After more than a year of ratcheting up interest rates at every meeting, the Fed finally pivoted from its war on inflation and paused rate hikes in December 2023.

Investors, however, had to wait nine months until September this year for a rate cut.