Inflation is finally coming down, but Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that the U.S. economy is not out of the woods yet.
In a question-and-answer session at the Economic Club of Washington, DC, the nation's top banker said that he expects the process to take some time.
“The disinflationary process, the process of getting inflation down, has begun and it’s begun in the goods sector, which is about a quarter of our economy,” he said. “But it has a long way to go. These are the very early stages.”
The comments track with Powell's previous statements that goods inflation is only part of the run-up in prices, and that services are now one of the biggest drivers of inflation.
Despite Powell sticking to his guns that inflation could be here for a while, stocks got a bump on Tuesday following the comments. Many investors appear to be holding out hope that the Fed will soon pull back on rate hikes, which would give equity markets some room to breathe.
Powell, for his part, stressed that it will likely take another full year for inflation to be brought under control. “We expect 2023 to be a year of significant declines in inflation. It’s actually our job to make sure that that’s the case,” he said.
Still, the Fed has already started moderating its stance. Earlier this month, the Fed announced a 25-basis-point hike, down from 50 basis points enacted at its previous meeting.
Google settled an antitrust lawsuit, Tesla is reportedly raising pay, a group is suing Utah over its social media policies for kids and the founder of Nikola was sentenced to prison.
The White House is lending its support to an auto industry effort to standardize Tesla’s electric vehicle charging plugs for all EVs in the United States.
Some of America’s biggest retailers are working to increase their shipping speeds to please shoppers expecting faster and faster deliveries.
A group representing several big tech companies is suing Utah over state laws about children's social media use.
Google has agreed to pay $700 million to settle an anti-trust settlement.
Stocks were up after the closing bell as Wall Street continued to pin their hopes on rate cuts after last week's comments from the Fed.
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