Traders expect a rate cut in November

According to James Ragan, director of asset management research at DA Davidson, Fed officials' current view of the labor market could be one of the key takeaways from Powell's news conference on Thursday.

“The biggest thing he can talk about is the job market because we had these hurricane impact numbers for October. Obviously a weak number, but I think the markets have neglected it badly due to the impact of the hurricane. So I'd like to hear it.” “We're talking a little bit beyond that data,” Ragan told CNBC.

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

–Jesse Pound

With the Federal Reserve expected to deliver a quarter-point interest rate cut 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 looking for clues from Powell on the future course of interest rate policy. Trading in Fed fund futures suggests about a 63 percent chance the central bank will make another quarter-point interest rate cut in December, but traders are also weighing the likelihood that policymakers could skip this month.

With Donald Trump heading to the White House for the second time this week, the central bank faces even more complexity. That's because the new administration's plans include tax cuts and tariffs that could impact the Fed's steps to curb 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 point on Thursday, taking another step toward easing its restrictive policies.

To that end, consumer interest rates have moved significantly since the Fed began its rate-hiking campaign in March 2022 — and in some parts of the market, rates have cooled slightly since the central bank made its first half-percentage-point rate cut in September.

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

According to the bank rate, credit card interest rates were at 20.5% last week, significantly higher than the 16.34% in March 2022. However, they are slightly lower compared to the previous month's rate of 20.78%.

The interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 7.09% in the week of November 1st, significantly higher than the 4.29% in March 2022. However, it is also higher than the week of September 13th, when the Interest rate was 6.12%.

That's because mortgage rates loosely follow this Yield on 10-year government bondswhich has recently seen an increase. In fact, the benchmark return was 4.363% for the week of November 1, well above the 3.649% it was trading at in mid-September.

–Darla Mercado, Nick Wells

Traders went into Thursday's Fed meeting confident that a rate cut was imminent, but increasingly uncertain about what would happen in December.

The Fed funds futures market pointed to a 100 percent chance that policymakers would ease monetary policy, with only a slim chance that the cut could reach half a percentage point like in September. According to CME Group's FedWatch tracker for 30-day fed funds futures contracts, the market's implied odds of a quarter-point move were about 99%.

In December, the likelihood of a break increases – as of Thursday lunchtime it was 32.6%, an increase of about 8 percentage points compared to the previous week. If the Fed doesn't skip December, the probability of it happening in January is about 68%, the CME indicator shows.

–Jeff Cox