The depth of the rate cut alarmed Mic Mills, a trader at City firm ETX Capital, who said: "Traders are thinking, if we've really got to cut rates to 3%, then how bad is it out there?" A cut in UK rates of at least a half point was regarded as a virtual certainty, but there had been a growing clamour for a more radical move of a full point.
The banks' lending margins will not widen meaningfully, however, until interest rates are even higher: the markets do not expect rates to increase by a full point for several years.What matters most now, however, is that Japan's slow-motion recovery continues.
In this case, if the response listed a disproportionate number of suggestions that were consistent with one approach (e.g., if the response listed three suggestions in line with reform and only one in line with enforcement, as in "investigate the root cause, institute new educational programs, create jobs, and hire more police") then it was coded as a full point for the corresponding category.
The most recent unemployment rate, for August, was a full point lower.
Perhaps the debate was worth a half a point or a full point for Mr. Obama — these trends would be more difficult to distinguish from statistical noise — but it probably wasn't worth much more than that.
Moreover, awarding ¾ of a point or a full point for semitone errors was a moot point in the statistical analyses because the two scoring methods were almost perfectly correlated (rs>.98) for each of the four timbres.
Futures contracts for a full-point cut shot up on Friday, though many economist still predict a cut of half or three-quarters of a point.
Turning the focus to Tuesday, investors are anxiously awaiting the Fed's announcement on monetary policy, with expectations increasing for a full-point cut to key rates, which would take the federal funds target down to 2.00%.
G.M. and Ford are still the only companies that each account for about a full percentage point of the nation's economic output; each is eight times the size of the Microsoft Corporation, for example.
Through the Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Mr. Trivigno found an adjustable-rate payment-relief mortgage for a full percentage point lower than those offered by two banks and a mortgage broker.
After the Fed's weekend moves, which included helping JPMorgan Chase finance a bargain-basement acquisition of Bear Stearns by providing financing in return for $30 billion in Bear Stearns illiquid assets as collateral, market sentiment had solidified around expectations for a full percentage point cut to the federal funds rate and discount rate.
