The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its second consecutive quarter-point rate cut to bolster the flagging labour market, in a move that highlighted the growing division in its ranks.

Policymakers voted 10-2 in favour of lowering the bank’s key lending rate to between 3.75 per cent and 4.00 per cent, the Fed said in a statement.

Opposed to the action were Fed governor Stephen Miran, who backed a bigger half-point cut, and Kansas City Fed president Jeff Schmid, who “preferred no change to the target range for the federal funds rate at this meeting”, the Fed said.

“We continue to face two-sided risks,” Powell told reporters at a press conference in Washington.

He added that during the Fed’s discussions this week, “there were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December”. “A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone conclusion, far from it,” Powell added.

Wall Street stocks fell after Powell’s remarks on the chances of a December rate cut.