The Federal Reserve is going to shock investors next year by aggressively cutting interest rates amid a slowing economy, UBS says.

The firm said in its 2024 economic outlook it expected economic growth to slow considerably next year after this year's brisk pace of growth, and that should lead to reduced retail spending, a worsening consumer balance sheet, and a continued rise in the unemployment rate.

"We expect economic growth to slow sharply in the next few quarters, with a mild contraction worth half a percentage point in the middle of the year," UBS said in a Monday note.

The firm said that over the course of the whole year, it expected GDP to grow just 0.3% in 2024, representing a marked slowdown from the 3% gain over the past four quarters.

Google ended its agreement with Australian construction firm Lendlease to develop $15 billion worth of master-planned districts in San Francisco amidst a major cost-cutting drive this year, Lendlease announced Friday. 

The two companies were planning to develop four campuses across the Bay Area including a site called Downtown West in San José, Moffet Park in Sunnyvale, as well as Middlefield Park and North Bayshore in Mountain View, per Lendlease. 

The developments were collectively known as the "San Francisco Bay Project," and were expected to commence in 2026. Lendlease secured its contract with Google in 2019. 

"The decision to end these agreements follow a comprehensive review by Google of its real estate investments and a determination by both organisations that the existing agreements are no longer mutually beneficial given current market conditions," Lendlease said in the press release. 

Mortgage rates ticked down this week, snapping a seven-week streak of increases.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to an average of 7.76% in the week ending November 2, down from 7.79% the week before, according to data from Freddie Mac released Thursday. A year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate was 6.95%.

The news comes a day after the Federal Reserve said in a widely anticipated move that it would leave its benchmark lending rate at the highest level in 22 years.

“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage paused its multi-week climb but continues to hover under 8%,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

“The Federal Reserve again decided not to raise interest rates but has not ruled out a hike before year-end,” he said. “Coupled with geopolitical uncertainty, this ambiguity around monetary policy will likely have an impact on the overall economic landscape and may continue to stall improvements in the housing market.”

A federal jury in Kansas City on Tuesday found the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and some of the largest real estate brokers in the country guilty of colluding to inflate real estate commissions.

Why it matters: The verdict is a major shake up to the U.S. real estate market and could change how Americans purchase homes, or specifically, how they pay for broker fees.

The big picture: The jury, after around two weeks of testimony from the plaintiffs and defendants, ordered the NAR and real estate franchises HomeServices of America and Keller Williams to pay $1.78 billion in damages to the sellers of more than 260,000 homes in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois — the plaintiffs in the case.