As expected, Chairman Powell held a press conference following the conclusion of this month's FOMC meeting. However, one question, in particular, seemed to fluster the chairman of the Federal Reserve to a greater extent than other questions he is uncomfortable with.
"I mentioned with rate cuts its a, rate cuts are not in our base case, ah and ah you know so …. That's all I have to say." That being said, the work done at the March FOMC meeting was significant with certain aspects highly anticipated others contained more clarity and timeline than prior press conferences. First, it was widely expected that the Federal Reserve will slow the pace of its rate hikes, and as in January raised rates by ¼%.
Certain market sectors like US equities focused on the fact that interest rates will remain elevated for a long time. While another asset gold saw the upcoming pause and the softening of strong rate hikes as a welcome change creating defined and strong bullish market sentiment. Gold futures have once again challenged $2000 per ounce as they did at the beginning of the week. In both cases, traders were unable to continue the needed momentum so that gold closed above that key psychological level.
Lol til more banks fail