Fed rate cut at next meeting is a coin flip after shutdown data blackout

Investors are split on whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again at its next meeting in less than a month, amid uncertainty following the loss of economic data during the government shutdown.

Typically, investors and Fed watchers generally have a sense of what the central bank plans to do with interest rates at its next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee. But now, there appears to be a growing split between the hawks and the doves on the board about monetary policy, in part, because officials are missing key economic data on inflation and the labor market.