Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is known for providing clear signals about the central bank’s next interest rate move in order to avoid roiling markets. But Wall Street was mostly clueless this week when it came to predicting how big a rate cut the Fed would deliver on Wednesday.

They were not, though, in a panic or worried about an imminent recession. Instead, they were thinking that the old interest rate would not be appropriate going forward.

U.S. stock index futures edged lower on Friday, pausing after the previous session's rally set Wall Street's main indexes on track for weekly gains following the Federal Reserve's pivotal stance on monetary policy earlier in the week.