Both the FED and BoC cut rates by 25 bps – Market wrap for the North American session - September 17

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Log in to today's North American session Market wrap for September 17

Both the Bank of Canada (2.75% → 2.50%) and the Federal Reserve (4.50% → 4.25%) cut their rates today which helped to sustain some decent strength in the Canadian Dollar despite pretty negative talks on the Canadian Economy at the decision.

The FED actually provided a fairly hawkish cut when looking at the speech from Powell. The Federal Reserve Chair emphasized the decision being centered around the labor market despite economic activity being more than decent.

Jerome Powell did mention the resilience of the American consumer and the stable inflation expectation throughout his press conference – This took out the initial dovishness that got priced right after the 14:00 announcement.

BoC Governor Macklem expressed some concerns about the Canadian Economy, while still precising that the current pace is more one of a slowdown that an actual recession.

You can access his comments right here.

Elsewhere, today showed the revelation that US Treasury's Scott Bessent also was found to have listed two homes as principal residence, the same as Lisa Cook as the case progresses – She is still part of the FED and will take back her responsibilities if the case goes to court.

China also decided to cut Nvidia chip purchases in the latest round of the ongoing Trade War between the US and China.

This might come as a piece of negotiation ahead of the Xi-Trump call that should be taking place on Friday.

Read More:

• Bank of Canada cuts rates to 2.50%, FOMC coming up!— North American mid-week Market update
• The Federal Reserve 25 bps cut sends markets on fire – SEP, Powell's speech and Market reactions

Cross-Assets Daily Performance

Cross-Asset Daily Performance, September 17, 2025 – Source: TradingView

As per usual for such a key FOMC day, the session was a rollercoaster.

Initial rallies in stocks, metals and bonds got met with sharp reversals as Powell's conference progressed.

The most resilient index amid the pullbacks was the Dow Jones which appreciated from the rate cut, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 gave back some of their optimism due to higher rate projections in 2026 when looking at the dot plot.

Overall, the FED will still be data dependent and traders will have to deal with that fact. There is still about 50 bps of cuts priced in towards the end of 2025.

A picture of today's performance for major currencies

Currency Performance, September 17 – Source: OANDA Labs

The speech from Powell brought back some of the USD strength in his usual balancing tone.

Look at the swing in the USD between 14:00 and around 15:00 - The greenback finishes the session at its highs. It particularly hurt the currencies which appreciated in the past week, with a focus on European FX.

The currency market will be interesting in the upcoming days particularly after the most recent swings in majors - Overall, data dependency will be back to moving markets moving forward, so stay in touch with the Economic calendar moving forward.

A look at Economic data releasing in tonight and tomorrow's sessions

For all market-moving economic releases and events, see the MarketPulse Economic Calendar.

After today’s wild Bank of Canada and FOMC rate cuts, the week is still far from over:

Today's evening session welcomes huge data for Antipodean traders, including New Zealand's GDP (18:45) and Australian Employment (21:30) – Both currencies and particularly the AUD have been strong in the past few weeks, putting some more emphasis on tonight's releases.

Thursday promises to be huge, kicking off with a flurry of ECB speeches overnight (another one by Lagarde, de Guindos, Schnabel, Nagel), adding to potential euro volatility – ECB speakers have been generous with speeches as of late which took out further rate cuts priced in 2026.

At 07:00 ET, all eyes turn to the Bank of England’s rate decision, minutes, and vote breakdown — a potential high-impact event for GBP.

After the most recent cut, the BoE is expected to maintain its rates at 4% amid high inflation but we can never know with the Bank of England.

The U.S. follows at 08:30 ET with Initial Jobless Claims and the Philly Fed survey, key checks on labour and manufacturing.

Later, New Zealand releases trade data at 18:45 ET, but the biggest piece of the session will be for the JPY traders (and actually all traders are looking at this):

The National CPI for Japan at 19:00 ET. but most importantly, the Bank of Japan interest rate decision expected for tonight anytime between 19:30 and 20:30 (time not specified).

Safe Trades in this huge Central Bank week!

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