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

Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, December 18th, and I'm your host, Kim Khan. This is a special Fed edition of Wall Street Lunch.

You're a mean one. Chairman Powell. Federal Reserve Chief J. Powell and the rest of

the FOMC played the Grinch to a market cruising into the Santa Claus rally period next week.

The Fed cut rates by a quarter point to 4.25 to 4.5%. That was a certainty before the decision.

In fact, the odds priced in a slight chance of a half-point cut right before the announcement.

But while traders got what they expected with the cut, I think a nice pair of socks under the tree,

they didn't get the official Red Rider Carbon Action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time,

or any indication that a jump in inflation this

past fall was a blip. This was definitely a hawkish rate cut, and the markets didn't like it,

with stocks tumbling and rates jumping. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammock was the loan voting

dissenter, but of the 19 members who provided forecasts for the summary of economic projections,

another three thought

that staying steady today was the right move. And speaking of the dot plot, the Fed now sees two quarter-point

cuts in 2025, down from four at the last meeting. Technically three is the last meeting included

the potential for a December cut that materialized. At the same time, expectations for inflation

next year rose,

with N25 headline PCE up to 2.5% from 2.1%, and Core PCE up to 2.5% from 2.2%.

Eugenio Alamon, chief economist at Raymond James, says it seems the Fed officials are following the

path they followed at the beginning of last year,

when inflation was higher than expected, and they decided to postpone the start of the rate cut cycle.

Those hoping Powell would offer some balance at the press conference, as he often does,

...