Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Thursday, November 7th, and I'm your host, Kim Khan. This is a special Fed Decision Edition of Wall Street Lunch.

I'm staying.

I'm finishing my coffee.

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points to the range of 4.5% to 4.75%

its second rate cut in a row.

That came as no surprise to Wall Street, an initial reaction to the move and statement

was muted. This is the first time the Fed delivered back-to-back rate cuts since the two emergency

cuts issued in March 2020 in response to COVID. With a little new in the statement that left

Chairman Jay Powell's press conference, where he refused to be lured into commenting on the election

or expected 2025 economic policies.

But when asked if he would resign if Trump asked him to leave, he simply replied, no.

That drew some follow-up, and when pressed in whether the president has the legal authority to fire the Fed chairman or demote other governors, he said,

not permitted under the law.

The market seemed to like the idea of Captain Powell still at the wheel.

Stocks had been choppy, but little changed after the decision, but then took another leg

higher.

Treasury yields added to their declines.

At the close, though, some typical Fed-day late selling left the S&P up 0.75%, the NASDAQ up 1.5% and the Dow flat.

The 10-year yield ended at 4.34% down about 10 basis points.

On policy, Powell seesawed.

He said that even with today's cut, policy is still restrictive, and the path to a more neutral stance hasn't changed

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