Investors tuning into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s news conference Wednesday will focus on his comments about how high interest rates might rise beyond this year to combat inflation.
This is partly because the Fed has clearly telegraphed its plans for an aggressive ramp-up in policy tightening at this week’s two-day policy gathering, which begins Tuesday. Officials are preparing to raise rates by an unusual half percentage point and to follow that move in June with another half-point increase—and possibly more after that. They haven’t raised rates by more than a quarter percentage point at any meeting since 2000.
