Thursday's data on weekly initial jobless claims was being seen by financial-market participants as consistent with a soft-landing scenario for the U.S. labor market. "Despite the significa

The Federal Reserve delivered its highly anticipated 50-basis point interest rate cut this afternoon. While the decision initially pushed the Dow and S&P 500 to new record highs, the former reversed its triple-digit gain to settle 103 points lower,

The August retail sales report was the last round of upper-tier economic data to be released ahead of Wednesday's rate decision, and it wasn't enough to move the needle much in terms of the debate between whether the Fed will cut by a larger-than-usual 50 basis points or a standard 25 basis points.