But is a rate cut incoming? Following July's meeting, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said, "The economy is moving closer to the point where it will be appropriate to reduce our policy rate. That time is drawing near. That time could be in September if the data support that."

For two and a half years, ever since America’s Federal Reserve embarked on its fastest series of interest-rate rises since the 1980s, investors have been desperate for any hint of when it would reverse course.

American consumers and home buyers, business people and political leaders have been waiting for months for what the Federal Reserve is poised to announce this week: That it’s cutting its key interest rate from a two-decade peak.