I did say to expect market whiplash

For the bold step of a 50 bps rate cut, the wording of the statement was almost identical to that which they gave in July. They said again that “economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace” but still decided to cut 50 bps. “Job gains have slowed” vs “job gains have moderated” in July but that’s a wash in terms of similarities and “the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low.” But they still cut 50 bps.

The greater confidence “that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%” obviously triggered the cut along with what Powell said in Jackson Hole that they won’t tolerate further weakening of the labor market. As part of this, they raised (the median dot did) their year end unemployment rate to 4.4% from 4% and held it there for yr end 2025. Core inflation was trimmed to 2.6% this year from 2.8% and to 2.2% next year from 2.3%.

The hawk Michelle Bowman only wanted a 25 bps rate cut. Agree with her or not, kudos to her for standing out from the typical consensus crowd.