Just hours away from the Federal Reserve’s expected rate reduction from its current 5.25%-5.50% range, the question remains whether the cut will amount to 25 basis points or 50bps.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is set to release a statement at 2 pm ET before Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference at 2:30 pm ET.  

One of the final data points to look at before the central bank’s decision was US retail sales for August. 

The Census Bureau’s report Tuesday morning showed these sales slightly rose last month — amounting to a month-over-month increase of 0.1%. The increase was a bit unexpected, as economists polled by Reuters had estimated a 0.2% decline.

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