Bond Market Rate-Cut Bets Face Powell Reckoning at Jackson Hole

Bond investors are heading into Friday’s much-anticipated Jerome Powell speech largely expecting the Federal Reserve chair will indicate policymakers will start cutting interest rates next month.

Powell’s speech, slated for 10 a.m. New York time at the central bank’s annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has been the focal point this week, for good reason. In recent years, he has used the occasion to make market-moving policy news, with investors zeroing in on whether the Fed chair pushes back — or not — on the current pricing for rate cuts.