Shares fell on Wall Street after Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced a cut to its key interest rate of 0.25%, but indicated this could be the last rate reduction for a while. The US dollar rose in value on the news. Also Lily Jamali explains how TikTok is pursuing a last-ditch effort in the US Supreme Court to avoid a mandated sale or ban of the app in America the day before Donald Trump is due to take office as president. And how Finland has become a global hub thing for all things Christmas.
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Hello and welcome to World Business Report here on the BBC World Service.
I'm Rahul Tandon.
Coming up, we're going to be talking about interest rates, their impact of a cut on the world's largest economy, why TikTok is back in court hoping to avoid a ban in the US and how a corner of Finland has become a global hub for all things Christmas.
One of the most sold extra things for the guests we have is the private visit of Santa to the rooms because we are Santa's home.
So why not?
Why not indeed?
That's all coming up on the program.
But let us start with this story.
Because whenever the US Central bank, the Federal Reserve meets to decide its policies on interest rates, it has a huge impact on global markets and economies.
The U.S.
of course, is the world's largest economy.
This meeting felt particularly important as it was the last one before Donald Trump's inauguration.
The Federal Reserve chair, Joe Powell made this announcement.
To that end today, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to take another step in reducing the degree of policy restraint by lowering our policy interest rate by a quarter percentage point.
Let's bring in Susan Schmidt, portfolio manager at Exchange Capital Resources in Chicago.
Not a surprise there, Susan, but what's really important is what the Federal Reserve chairman, Jay Powell says in that interaction he has afterwards, doesn't he, after they've made this decision and what did he say about future cuts?