No big push for a larger rate cut, Fed’s Powell says

(Reuters) -There was no widespread support for a larger, half-percentage-point interest rate cut at the Federal Reserve meeting this week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday after the central bank cut its policy rate by a quarter point.

“There wasn’t widespread support at all for a 50 basis point cut today,” Powell told reporters at a press conference following the Fed’s two-day meeting. “You know … we’ve done very large rate hikes and very large rate cuts in the last five years, and you tend to do those at a time when you feel that policy is out of place and needs to move quickly to a new place.”

(Reporting By Dan Burns)