Powell’s Pivot Leaves Traders Debating Size, Path of Rate Cuts
- Fed chair says ‘time has come’ for easing in clearest signal
- His remarks came before a flare-up of conflict in Middle East
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Now that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has made it crystal clear that interest-rate cuts are coming next month, bond traders are focusing in on bets over the size of that first reduction and the future path of easing.
Powell, speaking Friday at the US central bank’s annual symposium in Wyoming, said the “time has come” for the Fed to lower benchmark rates from their two-decade high, his clearest signal yet that long-awaited rate cuts are imminent.