The funds rate, the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans, dropped from 7.25 percent to 7.0 percent the next day.

The Federal funds rate, the rate banks charge each other on overnight loans, moved lower, which has a negative influence on the dollar.

The funds rate - the rate banks charge each other for temporary loans - closed a touch easier, at 9 7/16 percent.

The Federal funds rate, or the rate banks charge each other on overnight loans, is the central bank's target for short-term interest rates.

The Fed also reduced the Federal funds rate - the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans - to 3.25 percent from 3.75.

The Fed, for example, has permitted a rise in the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans.

Yesterday's lowering of the Federal funds rate - the rate banks pay for overnight borrowings from each other - was the first since 1992.

It was the third increase since September in the rate the central bank charges commercial banks for overnight loans.

The quarter-point boost, to 5.5 percent, was the third increase this year in the rate banks charge each other on loans.

He said that another cut in the prime, the rate banks charge to its most creditworthy customers, was not inconceivable.