On November 8th, the Wall Street Journal reporter Nick Timiraos commented on the Fed's rate decision for November, stating that "the Fed decided to cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday, but released more uncertainty about the speed of further rate cuts. The Fed is still trying to prevent the economic drag caused by the significant interest rate hikes of the past two and a half years. In a similar time frame, investors in the interest rate futures market have continuously lowered their expectations for the Fed's rate cuts over the next year or so. According to Citibank, they now believe that the Fed will lower rates to around 3.6% by 2026, while in September they estimated a drop to 2.8%. Officials are trying to bring rates back to a more normal level, one that neither stimulates nor slows economic growth, but they do not know what a normal rate is. Therefore, they may use the performance of the economy in the coming months as a guide. This means that they may maintain rates at a slightly higher than normal or neutral level."