Market Wire, North America

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell provided a clear signal that the central bank will soon resume cutting interest rates in a speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium this morning. “The balance of risks appears to be shifting,” Powell said at the central bank’s annual gathering in the Grand Teton National Park this morning, “In the near term, risks to inflation are tilted to the upside, and risks to employment to the downside—a challenging situation”. “Nonetheless, with policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance”. In his last appearance...

The Federal Reserve downgraded its assessment of the economy even as it held interest rates steady for a fifth straight meeting, and stopped short of executing the sort of communications pivot that might have prepared markets for an imminent rate cut. The Federal Open Market Committee voted in a split 9-2 decision to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate between 4.25 to 4.50 percent—a level reached in December after a series of cuts in the second half of 2024—with Trump appointees Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller dissenting from the majority. This is highly unusual—the last time two...