US Fed Chair Powell Testifies

The prospect of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates as soon as September buoyed asset prices on Wednesday following two days of dovish testimony from Fed Chair Powell, who testified before the Senate and House. “Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expressed concerns on Tuesday [and Wednesday] about the risks of maintaining high interest rates for an extended period, which could hinder economic growth,” said analysts at Secure Digital Markets. “The market anticipates the Fed will start reducing rates in September, with a ...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he believes inflation is receding, but isn’t yet confident that price gains are sustainably slowing to the central bank’s 2% goal. “I do have some confidence” that inflation is receding, the Fed chief told House lawmakers on his second day of testimony in Washington. “The question is: Are we sufficiently confident that it is moving sustainably down to 2%? And I’m not prepared to say that yet.” Powell said recent price readings have shown “modest further progress,” and “more good data” would ...

In his remarks to the Senate Banking Committee on July 9, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell insisted that the central bank would not countenance a rate cut until inflation data was “good enough.” With June CPI confirming inflation is at a three-year low, can markets expect the data is now good enough?

video The Federal Reserve faces a cooling job market as well as persistently high prices, Chair Jerome Powell said in testimony Tuesday to Congress, a shift in emphasis away from the Fed’s single-minded fight against inflation of the past two years that suggests it is moving closer to cutting interest rates. The Fed has made “considerable progress” toward its goal of defeating the worst inflation spike in four decades, Powell told the Senate Banking Committee. “Inflation has eased notably” in the past two years, he added, though it ...