Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in July indicates that the labor market remains strong and that economic activity has been rising at a moderate rate. Job gains have been solid, on average, in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Although household spending has been rising at a strong pace, business fixed investment and exports have weakened. On a 12-month basis, overall inflation and inflation for items other than food and energy are running below 2 percent. Market-based measures of inflation compensation remain low; survey-based measures of longer-term inflation ... (full story)

This is a comparison of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee statement with the one issued on July 31 after the Fed’s previous policymaking meeting. Text removed from the July statement is in red with a horizontal line through the middle. Text appearing for the first time in the new statement is in red and underlined. Black text appears in both statements. (full story)

Federal Reserve policy makers lowered their main interest rate for a second time this year while splitting over the need for further easing, caught between uncertainty over trade and global growth and a domestic economy that's holding up well. “ Although household spending has been rising at a strong pace, business fixed investment and exports have weakened,’’ the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement on Wednesday in Washington. Officials maintained their pledge to “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion.” Chairman Jerome Powell, under relentless public pressure from President Donald Trump to slash ... (full story)