On November 8th, the Federal Reserve's "mouthpiece" and Wall Street Journal reporter Nick Timiraos commented on the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision in November: "The Federal Reserve decided to cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday, but it has released more uncertainty in the speed of continued interest rate cuts. The Federal Reserve is still trying to prevent the sharp interest rate hikes of the past two and a half years from dragging down the economy. In a similar time frame, investors in the interest rate futures market have been lowering their expectations for the Federal Reserve's rate cuts in the next year or so. According to Citibank, they now think the Fed will cut interest rates to about 3.6 percent by 2026, up from an estimate of 2.8 percent in September. Officials are trying to bring rates back to a more normal level that neither stimulates nor slows growth, but they don't know what a normal rate is. So they're likely to be guided by how the economy performs in the coming months. That means they'll keep rates a little above normal or neutral. "