Still, investors took heart from the chair’s remarks acknowledging that price pressures have started to ease, despite his emphasis on the Fed’s outlook for more rate hikes. The S&P 500 closed more than 1% higher after he spoke and two-year yields fell sharply.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said policymakers expect to deliver a “couple” more interest-rate increases before putting their aggressive tightening campaign on hold, even as they slowed their drive to curb inflation.
Powell and his colleagues lifted the Fed’s target for its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%. The smaller move followed a half-point increase in December and four jumbo-sized 75 basis-point hikes prior to that.
