Check out the big Fed rate cut.
 
The Federal Reserve cut the key federal funds rate by a whopping 75 basis points in the face of a global market meltdown. 
 
That should do wonders for consumer spending … in July.
 
“This has to work its way through the financial system and through business before it works its way back to the consumer,” Michael Niemira, chief economist for the International Council of Shopping Centers, said.
 
“Typically, you need a good six months before it starts to filter through,” he added. But Niemira did note that the Fed had already been cutting rates, so some of that impact could be working its way to consumers.
 
A more immediate boost could come from an economic stimulus package, which is being worked on by the White House and Congress. Analysts say that tax rebates in particular could help boost consumer spending until the rate cuts trickle through the economy.
 
Meanwhile, there is also the possibility that the big rate cut could do the opposite of spurring consumer spending and instead cause more panic in financial markets.
 
“There is clearly a panic setting in as more and more investors come around to the thinking that a recession may be likely or, in the least, they are downwardly revising all their estimates of corporate profitability,” Kevin Logan, economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, said.
 
Also in the basket:
Anheuser-Busch pushes the big beers for the Super Bowl (N.Y. Times)
 
Cellphones and virtual worlds morphing shopper ways

(Photo: Reuters)