There was a flood of earnings this week, but the Fed was investors' focus.

Motley Fool money starts now.

I'm Travis Hoyam, joined by longtime fools, Lou the Legend Whiteman, and Mr. pop culture, Jason Moser.

Today we're going to cover earnings from Apple, Amazon, and of course, some AI news.

But first, the Federal Reserve, the Fed continues to get more intention than I can remember in my 30 years

of investing. They decided to keep rates steady this week at 4.25 to 4.5% much to the dismay

of some. But let's get beyond the catchy headlines. If the Fed cuts rates, and they control

the Fed funds rates, by, let's say, 1%, something that, you know, a big cut that a lot of investors would love, that doesn't necessarily mean that your mortgage is going to go down and become cheap again like they were a few years ago. So, Jason, what is signal and what's noise here from the Fed? Yeah, I'm glad you brought that mortgage point up there, because I think that's been a narrative.

I think that's been going around for a while, is we need to bring these rates down so we can kind of

loosen the housing market back up.

But, I mean, listen, if mortgage rates right now, it's six and a half to seven percent,

we start seeing these little incremental cuts.

I mean, we're not going to be seeing those 4%, 3% mortgage rates anytime soon, if ever again.

And most people, I know I certainly took advantage of it when I could.

I mean, most people have refinanced and got that 3% 30-year fixed rate.

So it's going to be sort of a new paradigm here.

And I think in regard to the noise, I think the noise is the ongoing battle between the administration

trying to push for these rate cuts.

And I think we can all agree that the Fed should be making decisions based on data and not

political demands, right?

I mean, that mandate that we typically refer to in regard to the Fed, it is essentially to conduct

monetary policy with two goals in mind, right?

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