Futures market pricing in 25 basis point cut to rates

Following disappointing economic data, analysts are uncertain whether the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will again ease monetary policy at its penultimate 2002 meeting on Wednesday this week. The Fed Funds rate has remained at 1.75% since December 2001, when the FOMC made the last in a series of 11 rate cuts that wiped 4.25 percentage points off official interest rates in the space of a year, taking them to their lowest level since 1961. The futures market is pricing in a strong chance of a further 25 basis point easing before the end of the year. Meanwhile, data showing ...