With global financial markets taking a sharp downturn over the past two trading sessions, attention has turned to the U.S. Federal Reserve. 

The Fed held rates steady at 5.25% to 5.5% at last week’s meeting, and most industry observers have been predicting a 50 basis-point cut at September’s meeting. However, a worse-than-expected U.S. jobs report coupled with various macroeconomic factors in recent days has led some to call for an emergency rate cut.

U.S. indices were down about 2.4% at publication time, while bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was down more than 8%. The decline in the cryptocurrency market cap over the past 24 hours is the largest daily downturn since January 2022.

Jeremey Siegel on Monday called on the Fed to make an emergency 75 basis-point cut …