Fed Chair Jerome Powell followed through on his pledge last week to act as appropriate with a "shock-and-awe" emergency rate cut of 50bps, which was the largest since the Great Financial Crisis. As Bloomberg pointed out:
The surprise wasn’t necessarily the magnitude of the move. Rather, the shock is just how decisively the Fed chose to respond after signaling little urgency just a few days ago.
Indeed, the Fed's decision to take action now instead of the regularly scheduled FOMC meeting underscores their determination to prevent the recent stock market correction to spillover into a