The Latest Breaking News from Jerome Powell

Leading cryptocurrencies fell alongside major stock indexes on Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that a year-end interest rate cut is “not a foregone conclusion.”

Stocks sold off late Wednesday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell pushed back on expectations for another interest rate cut in December, warning that such a move is "far from a foregone conclusion” as the Federal Open Market Committee remains divided and incoming data remains clouded by shutdown-related gaps.

The Fed will stop shrinking its $7 trillion balance sheet in December, but Powell stressed it’s a pause in quantitative tightening, rather than a new phase of easing.

The move comes as the ongoing government shutdown restricts the release of critical economic data.

For the first time in modern history, the Fed cut rates without jobs data, acting amid a government shutdown, rising unemployment, and open pressure from the president, who wants Powell gone.

Central bank sets rates at range between 3.75% and 4% amid turbulence from government shutdown and Trump’s tariffs

“Chair Powell’s press conference will pivot away from economic data—given its scarcity—and instead focus on balance sheet policy, the policy framework review, and financial stability,” Deutsche Bank says.

“Earlier this month, markets shifted more towards a ‘central bank put’ regime,” Christian Mueller-Glissmann at Goldman Sachs wrote in a note to clients.

As Amazon slashes 14,000 white-collar roles and the U.S. approaches a million job cuts this year, AI’s first major labor casualty might be emerging.