The US Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee duly made no change to interest rates, as did the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank the next day. But what did change – the Fed's projections for its interest rates next year – has galvanised the markets, and that has profound implications for all of us. Cautious: Fed chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged that rate cuts could begin before inflation got down to 2 per centThe Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, was cautious, as central bankers must be. Remember all that stuff about the Chancellor having more 'headroom' for tax cuts in the Autumn Statement? The S&P 500 closed at 4,719 on Friday and the ten-year yield was 3.9 per cent.

Source: Daily Mail December 17, 2023 18:09 UTC