Wall Street Got the Rally Signals From Powell It Was Hoping For

Wall Street traders were waiting for a signal from Jerome Powell to keep a rally going, and they got it when the Fed chair struck a dovish tone during his speech in Jackson Hole. This led to a surge in stocks and bonds, with Treasuries rallying and the S&P 500 Index rebounding from a five-day slide, and futures traders started pricing in a September rate cut. Meghan Swiber, Bank of America senior US rates strategist, and Tony Rodriguez, Nuvee head of fixed income strategy, react on “Bloomberg Real Yield.”Source: Bloomberg

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By Denitsa Tsekova, Ye Xie, and Natalia Kniazhevich

August 22, 2025 at 3:42 PM UTC

Updated on

August 23, 2025 at 2:43 AM UTC

For much of this month, Wall Street traders piled into stocks and bonds, betting that the Federal Reserve was finally ready to start cutting interest rates again. All they were waiting on was the green light from Jerome Powell to keep the rally going.

They got exactly what they were looking for on Friday, when the Fed chair unleashed the biggest cross-markets surge since April by striking a dovish tone during a highly anticipated speech.