Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Friday he backed a 50-basis-point interest-rate cut at this week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting, citing a steeper-than-expected decline in inflation.

The paltry CPI report means the Fed will likely only cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point. Wall Street, for whatever reason, isn't cheery.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said favorable inflation data, and not worries about the labor market, are what convinced him to support policymakers’ decision to lower interest rates by a half percentage point this week.

We’re at a point where the economy is strong, inflation is coming down, and we want to keep it that way,” Waller said during an interview with CNBC on Friday. Waller has se