DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: You heard John, you heard the president talk about Alan Greenspan, about a potential interest-rate cut. Let's go to where that two-day meeting of the Fed is taking place. Washington, D.C. -- keep in Washington, D.C., and bring in our Peter Viles who's covering that meeting -- Peter.</s>PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. Since this meeting began about two hours ago, Alan Greenspan and other members of the Federal Reserve have received some pretty bad news on consumer confidence. Consumer confidence dropped very sharply in January, according to a reading that just came out 10 o'clock this morning. Economists had expected it to go down. They did not expect a drop as steep as they received. In fact, one part of that report, where that asked consumers, what do you think about the economy in the near term, the response was so negative that they say it is consistent with the way consumers feel heading into a recession. So that is the news that hit the Federal Reserve in this meeting today. Alan Greenspan arriving here as he always does about five past 8:00. The meeting, we're told, began at about 9:00. It is a two-day meeting. They will meet today, come back tomorrow. And if tradition holds, if recent history of the Fed holds, at 2:15 tomorrow, they will come out of this meeting, make an announcement on interest rates on paper. And the widespread expectation on Wall Street is, with the economy slowing, with a threat of a recession looming, that the Fed will cut interest rates again, by half a percentage point. You remember they cut them by half a percentage point earlier in January -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Peter Viles in Washington, D.C., thank you very much.
January Consumer Confidence Drops; Fed Expected to Cut Rates