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More Breaking News - U.S. Fed Cuts Discount Rate in Rare Weekend Session!

Another news story has just broke this Sunday evening. In a rare weekend meeting by the Federal Reserve the Federal Reserve has agree to cut the Fed Discount Rate and other 25 Basis Points to 3.25 % to direct loans to commercial banks to open up borrowing at the rate to primary dealers in government securities. This was another attempt to move the AsianMarkets before they open Monday morning. The Asian market futures were set to open sharply lower Monday on news of the Bear Stearns debacle Friday. The moves were meant to ease the financial strains globally on the credit freeze and instill confidence in the financial markets.

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Posted by Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO on 03/16/2008 08:11 PM

Comments (28)

federal reserve cuts rates interest rates dicsount points liquidity confidence financial markets global credit crunch liquidity banking

Originally posted at: Atlanta Real Estate | Atlanta Housing News for Real Estate: More Breaking News - U.S. Fed Cuts Discount Rate in Rare Weekend Session!

28 Comments on More Breaking News - U.S. Fed Cuts Discount Rate in Rare Weekend Session!

MAR

2008

Wow Jim...I didn't hear that one....cutting the value of our dollar to help the Asian markets. I know that this could be a good thing, but we seem so reactionary now. We'll see where this takes us.

What looks like good news probably not... each time this happens mortgage rates go up. I wish we could all slow down and let the market do its own thing.. in a normal market we know it takes 90 days for the market to change directions .. its time to slowdown and let the market heal on its own.

Jim, I think we are worst off then they are letting on. I don't remember the last time the fed's cut rates on a weekend.

Even though the fed rates will go down, I doubt it will help the mortgage market.

I think the last cut was an unplanned meeting as well.

-Mark

Larry Bettag Illinois FHA Specialist This news has broked within the last 30 minutes! The Asian market were poised to go much lower, this helps us...

Eric Reid Lawrenceville,GA I agree. I feel that we need to let the first medicines need to take hold. The Fed probaly is seeing a lot of things we will probably never see. Something is broke big time is my own opinion.

Hi Jim,

I just heard about it. It will be interesting to see what comes of it. I will have CNN on at the office tomorrow to follow it. Have a great week. Michael A. Caruso

Frank Rubi Louisiana Real Estate-Homes for Sale Wellthe last time they intervened at a level of Bear Stearns it was in the early 1960's. Yes I agree with you...something big is happening behind the scenes.

Jeremy Blanton These rate are not meant for mortgages, these are meant to prevent bank failures. These are to put liquidity into the system.

Michael A. Caruso A lot of news on the wires tonight! I go to Google Business News it is pretty good!

Mark A. Moore, ABR The last rate cut was only the 5th time in the Federal Reserve History where it was an unannounce intervention. This is the 6th. It gets kind of spooky when the last few times have been within recent weeks.

I certainly agree on the spookiness, Jim.

-Mark

Mark A. Moore, ABR No answers here. I always hope the people up front know what they are doing.

Jim, it seems like the Fed is getting very reactionary to every bit of world bad news these days.

Jim,

Thanks for useful info! The world's a mess right now, and it remains to see if the Fed gets what they wanted out of this.

Mike in Tucson

Gary Woltal - REALTOR® Dallas Ft. Worth No I think they are doing what they have to. I listened to an interview this weekend from an economic professor from Harvard who is also an economist adviser to the Federal Reserve. We are more or less in uncharted waters with derivatives, CMO's etc... and a global credit freeze cause by bad paper from the USA fueled by sub-prime mortgages and Alt-A's.

Mike Jones Better tank up your cars tomorrow. Oil is going to skyrocket! The dollar appears to be in a free fall, and it appears cheaper, oil, gold and commodities will rise higher! Down the road we will pay dearly for this because of the inflation it will create!

'Not expecting this to trickle down to me/us in any way. As you said, gas prices will probably go up. I love this business, but sometimes I have to ask myself, do I need it and want it enough to wait out another market like this? Probably, it's tempting...

MAR

2008

Jim,

I hear about this on the morning news. I doubt it will effect our market either way...just another media story with a temporary way to inject something into the RE market and hope it looks positive...but I also just read the day before how lenders are making it impossible for buyers to buy even would excellent credit. How about they fix that and let people refinance or buy that have good credit? Why can't they do something with that instead of this.

I am surprised to read they did this on the weekend. I am going to turn on the TV to hear more about it.Thanks for the information.Happy St Patrick's Day.

Margaret Woda, Maryland REALTOR Margaret this is a tough market that is going to get tougher if we understand the fundamentals. Credit is going to freeze up for a while. I just pray some of these persons on top know what they are doing.

Neal Bloom-Realtor ® Assoc.-CRS-Weston I don't have the answers. I guess they look at it as a "First things first" they want to keep the banks from failing.

GITA BANTWAL, REALTOR BUCKS COUNTY, PA HOMES It was a surprise that they wanted to get it fixed prior to the Asian markets opening. In spite of what they did, the Asian markets pretty much plummmeted this morning. The Hang Seng Index dropped over 5%! Could you imagine what would have happened if they Feds did nothing?

Happy St Patricks Day to you also!

I was absolutely shocked to see the FEDS drop the rate to 3.25 BPs! I'm glad they did for the benefit of the foreign markets--we were actually pretty stable this morning and the day ended MUCH better than I expected today. I'm anxiously awaiting the market tomorrow--I'm afraid it's not going to be as steady as today; I think investors were simply in shock today and didn't know WHAT to do!

Debe Maxwell The entire thing is not over yet. It will be interesting how much the Fed drops rates tomorrow.

MAR

2008

I hear more cuts are in the offing - does not bode well for out spring selling season if panic ensues at the buyer level...

Jeff Geoghan MBA, - Lancaster PA Real Estate Expert The crazy thing is who knows where any of this is going? This is the strangest market I've ever participated in. In the last 2 days we've have had 3 properties listed with us go under contract and 1 had multiple offer. However, no offer was really great. Seller contributions, sellers take cash to closing, and break even pricing...but they are selling. Prior to the last few days our market in general was absolutely dead!

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