FILE PHOTO: U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell holds a news conference following a two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting in Washington, U.S., September 26, 2018. Stocks swooned on those remarks as investors bet the U.S. central bank would need more rate hikes to prevent the economy from overheating.The possibly dovish shift in language on Wednesday came as President Donald Trump stepped up attacks on Powell, criticizing the Fed’s rate hikes as undercutting his economic and trade policies. “Our gradual pace of raising interest rates has been an exercise in balancing risks.”Rates “are still low by historical standards, and they remain just below the broad range of estimates of the level that would be neutral for the economy,” he added.Factually, Powell’s remarks on Wednesday and in October are both true. On Wednesday he referenced a range, and in October he likely referenced a median. It was 2.95 percent earlier this month, suggesting investors have scratched off a full rate hike from their forecasts of Fed policy.Stock markets began a broad descent toward a correction - a decline from the most recent peak of at least 10 percent - in early October, just after Powell had sounded a quite confident tone on the economy.

Source: Egypt Today November 28, 2018 21:56 UTC