No pressure, Jerome: Why the Fed's next rate decision is the most important market event left in 2025

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The Fed kicks off a two-day meeting today. It's largely expected to cut rates on Wednesday. Investors are currently pricing in an 87% chance of a 25-basis-point cut. One chart shows how the direction of stocks since late October has been largely dictated by rate-cut expectations. If you had to pick a defining driver of the stock market over the first several months of 2025, it would probably be President Donald Trump's tariffs. Then the middle section of the year was o ...