The Federal Reserve's closely followed overnight reverse-repo facility already has begun to reflect Wednesday's big interest-rate cut. Wall Street firms rushed to park extra cash overnight at the facility in the wake of the pandemic,

Wall Street wavered near its records after the Federal Reserve kicked off its efforts to prevent a recession with a bigger-than-usual cut to interest rates. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3%

The momentous move by the Fed helps financial markets in two big ways. It eases the brakes off the economy, which has been slowing under the weight of higher rates, and it gives a boost to prices for all kinds of investments. Besides stocks, gold and bond prices had already rallied in recent months on expectations that cuts to rates were coming.