Goldman Sachs: One more rate cut and then the Fed is done

After one more interest rate cut, the Federal Reserve will be finished cutting rates, according to Goldman Sachs.

The firm gives an 80% probability of another rate cut this year to wrap up the Fed’s easing cycle.

“[Powell’s] language we see as consistent with our expectation that easing will end with a second 25bp cut,” Goldman chief economist Jan Hatzius said in a note to clients following Wednesday’s FOMC meeting.

At the meeting, the Federal Reserve appeased the markets by cutting the target range for its overnight lending rate 25 basis points, to 2% to 2.25%. This marked the first rate cut since the start of the financial recession more than a decade ago. The major stock indexes sold off and bond yields rose after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s news conference, where he watered down the chances of more rate cuts.

Powell’s comments were received as hawkish, given that markets priced in a much deeper cutting cycle, said Hatzius. Although Powell did not rule out further cuts, his comments that the Fed was making a “midcycle adjustment ” and was not in a longer-term rate-cutting mode panicked investors.

Hatzius sees a 55% chance of 25 basis point cut in September, a 5% chance of a 50 basis point cut and a 40% chance of no cut.

While Hatzius expects a second cut at the September central bank meeting, he continues “to see little need for it.”

“Uncertainty is not actually particularly high and capex expectations are not particularly depressed,” said Hatzius.

— With reporting from CNBC’s Michael Bloom