The biggest gains, however, tend to come after the Fed begins cutting rates following a stock market panic. Following the first Fed rate cut in March 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, the S&P 500 was up over 27% in the next 12 months. Meanwhile, following the rate cut after the Sept. 11, 2001, market crash, the S&P was nearly 21% higher a year later.

Asian markets have forged higher after the Federal Reserve kicked off its efforts to prevent a recession in the U.S. with a bigger-than-usual cut to interest rates

In the end, the Fed decided to go big. The Federal Reserve lowered its key interest rate by a hefty half percentage point Wednesday, moving ahead with its first rate cut in four years and cheering markets that expected an emphatic move amid a softening jobs picture.

After years of rate hikes in its effort to tame rising inflation, the central bank has elected to do something it hasn’t done since 2020: make a cut. While on one hand the Feds