Wall Street Pros Say Fed Did Right Thing

By an overwhelming 96% majority, the Wall Street money managers, investment strategists and economists responding to a CNBC Trillion Dollar Snap Survey today, say the Federal Reserve "did the right thing" when it lowered the discount rate this morning. 

There is more disagreement, however, on two other key questions:

Have we seen the bottom of the stock market correction?

Yes 55%

No 45%

Will the Federal Reserve cut its Federal Funds target interest rate at or before its September meeting?

Yes 46%

No 54%

We also asked for predictions about where the Fed Funds rate will be six months from now.  Compared to the results from just after the previous Fed meeting earlier this month, those answering our snap survey now have much greater expectations for a Fed Funds rate cut, with almost half predicting the central bank's target will be a half-point lower six months from now.

Response	Today	August 7
4.00% or less	2%	0%
4.25%	6%	2%
4.50%	10%	3%
4.75%	49%	15%
5.00%	16%	29%
5.25% (the current level)	16%	46%
5.50%	0%	3%
5.75%	0%	0%
6.00% or higher	0%	2%

These survey results represent the opinions of 50 of Wall Street’s top money managers, investment strategists and professional economists.

They responded to CNBC’s invitation to participate in our online survey. Their responses were collected today, Friday, August 17 between 10am ET and 1:30pm ET.  Participants were told their answers would be reported only in the aggregate unless CNBC requested and received permission to publicly reveal specific responses. Participants were not required to answer every question.

This is not intended to be a scientific poll and its results should not be extrapolated beyond those who did accept our invitation.

© 2009 CNBC.com