The Federal Reserve begins its September meeting today, Sept. 16, and will announce its policy decision tomorrow. In what was in all likelihood his final address as the Fed chair at the Jackson Hole Symposium last month, Jerome Powell raised hopes of a rate cut by observing a “shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance.”
At the same event last year, Powell had said that "the time has come for policy to adjust,” which, as investors will recall, was followed by a 50-basis-point rate cut in September 2024. The U.S. central bank subsequently cut rates by 25 basis points each in November and December, but has since maintained the status quo, citing uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s economic policies – specifically on immigration and tariffs.
