Will the Fed cut interest rates — and will Lisa Cook have a vote?

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point next week, in what would be the US central bank’s first cut since December.

Traders have fully priced in a 0.25 percentage point cut for Wednesday’s meeting of the Fed’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, which will come just days after Fed governor Lisa Cook won her initial case against President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire her.

Following that ruling, the Trump administration asked a US appeals court to allow the president to sack Cook, who has been accused of mortgage fraud, before the FOMC begins its two-day meeting on Tuesday. Her lawyers argue the attempted dismissal is premised on “an unsubstantiated allegation”