US Fed Chair Powell Speaks

Bitcoin’s meteoric run may have gotten a little extra push from an unlikely source: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. In comments Wednesday about the cryptocurrency, the central bank leader noted that he does not and cannot own any himself. In addition, he said the Fed’s role in regulating bitcoin and its competitors is limited. However, he also maintained that bitcoin is not a challenge for traditional currencies such as the U.S. dollar but rather for gold. “People use bitcoin as a speculative asset,” Powell told CNBC’s Andrew ...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the US economy’s strength means the central bank can show some restraint with cutting interest rates. “The US economy is in very good shape, and there’s no reason for that not to continue,” Powell said at an event hosted by The New York Times. “The good news is that we can afford to be a little more cautious” with cutting rates, the Fed leader said. Powell’s comments come as the Fed is expected to cut interest rates later this month for the third time this year. The central bank ...

Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks at the New York Times DealBook Summit in New York, NY on Wednesday. “The economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates,” Powell said in Dallas last month. The Federal Reserve approved its second consecutive interest rate cut in November, moving at a less aggressive pace than before but continuing its efforts to right-size monetary policy.

Financial markets trended lower on Thursday as the return of inflation concerns – sparked by a hotter-than-expected Producer Price Index print – gave investors reason to pull back their ‘Trump Trade’ bets as the outlook for interest rate cuts became murkier. Following the PPI release, Fed Chair Jerome Powell amplified concerns about the future of interest rate cuts after he told reporters that the central bank does not need to be “in a hurry” to lower rates further. Stocks, which were already trending in the red before Powell’s ...

Traders pared back their expectations for an interest-rate cut in December and policy-sensitive US yields jumped after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said economic resilience gives officials room to ease more carefully. The yield on two-year Treasuries rose as much as eight basis points to 4.36% on Thursday as Powell spoke from prepared remarks in Dallas. Swaps traders lowered the chance to about 56% that the central bank reduces rates at their two-day gathering that wraps on Dec. 18 — from roughly 80% a day earlier. “The risks ...