Jefferies: Fed willing to cut interest rates, but needs slowing employment data to give it the green light

market almost unanimously believes that the Federal Reserve will keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.25% to 4.5% today, but there is disagreement in the market about the policy path after this. Mohit Kumar, Chief Economist at Jefferies, said, "In our view, the Federal Reserve intends to lower interest rates from the current level, but still needs to see signs of a slowdown in employment data to 'give the green light'. Once employment data shows signs of weakness, they will start cutting rates."