It seems like economists, traders, politicians, and financial journalists have been waiting forever for the Federal Reserve to start cutting U.S. interest rates.

Actually, it's been 14 months since July 2023 when the Fed last boosted its key federal funds rate to 5.25% to 5.5%.

Related: Goldman Sachs issues stocks forecast for next year

More important, it's been 54 months, since March 2020, since the Fed actually cut rates. That was when the Covid-19 pandemic erupted and basically stopped all activity, and the Fed wanted to be sure the U.S. economy didn't seize up entirely.

A rate cut is probably coming Wednesday at the end of a two-day meeting of the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee. There are other events coming this week including some important economic and earnings reports.

Wall Street is divided on the size of the rate cut

Futures trading suggest half of traders see a cut of a quarter-of-a-percentage point to 5% to 5.25%. The other half of Wall Street thinks — and is rooting for — a half-percentage cut to 4.75% to 5.25%.

Related: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang just forecast AI's future

But the rate decision, which will be announced at 2 p.m. Wednesday, may move stocks mightily. If the announcement doesn't, two more events could:

• Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's news conference, which should start around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Powell often surprises traders with a point not in the announcement. A key point to look for: Guidance on how many more rate cuts are coming.

• The release of the dot-plot chart. This is basically a by-the-gut series of guesses by Fed officials on where the economy, inflation and interest rates are headed over the balance of the year and for the few two or three years afterward. What traders will want to know if how many officials see rates falling and by how much.

Though the dot-plot really is just a representation of admittedly educated guesses, investors pay close attention to it as a sort of road map of what's ahead.

It should be noted, as theStreet's Martin Baccardax did this week, that the Fed has been slow in cutting rates, just as it was in launching a forceful campaign to fight inflation.

More on Investing

• What's next for Arm's stock price after Apple's partnership?

• I Just Might See a Way to Play The Children's Place

• Veteran fund manager who correctly forecast stock drop updates outlook

The economy may gain some strength after the Fed decision for three reasons:

• Oil prices are coming down.

• U.S. gasoline prices nationally will almost certainly drop below $3 a gallon nationally by mid-October. As of Saturday, the AAA daily national average was $3.217 a gallon, up only 3.2% on the year and down 16.7% from a year ago. The AAA price is down 3.7% so far in September.

• Mortgage rates are now just above 6% and may make buying a home a bit more affordable, if prices don't explode. At 7.5% (the rate in late April), a principal-and-interest payment on a $250,000 mortgage was $1,748. At 6.1%, the payment is $1,521, a 13% decline.