No indication Fed will cut rates early

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that "it may take longer than expected" for high interest rates to lower inflation and gave no hint that a recently slowing labor market could mean earlier rate cuts.

"We'll need to be patient and let restrictive policy do its work," Powell said during a session at a Foreign Bankers Association meeting in Amsterdam. "It may be that (high interest rates) take longer than expected to do its work and bring inflation down."

He also reiterated, however, that a rate hike is unlikely.

His remarks largely echo those he made at a news conference after a Fed meeting earlier this month at which officials kept their key short-term interest rate at a 23-year high of 5.25% to 5.5%.

How many jobs were added in April?

But after a recent report showed that U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs last month – down from an average of 269,000 a month in the first quarter – and the unemployment rate edged up to 3.9%, some economists said the nascent signs of a pullback revived hopes of an earlier rate cut.

On Tuesday, though, Powell called the labor market "very, very strong" and provided no signal that April's softer but still solid job gains raised any concerns among Fed officials. At the news conference earlier this month, Powell said either a larger inflation drop-off or an "unexpected" weakening in the labor market could coax the Fed to trim rates sooner.

Most forecasters have expected job growth to gradually slow amid high interest rates and the fading of a post-pandemic burst of hiring.

As recently as late March, the Fed was tentatively predicting three rate cuts this year, with the first coming in June, after inflation eased rapidly during the second half of last year. But after reports last month showed that inflation remained high in March for a third straight month, Fed officials said they likely would keep rates higher for longer.

"The first quarter is notable for its lack of further progress on inflation," Powell said Tuesday.

What is the current inflation rate?

In March, the Fed's preferred measure of annual inflation overall rose from 2.5% to 2.7% – well below a 40-year high of 7.1% in mid-2022 but above its 2% goal. A core reading that excludes volatile food and energy items held steady at 2.8%, down from a peak of 5.6% in 2022.

Also, a report Tuesday morning showed that wholesale prices increased more than expected in April. However, Powell called the report "mixed," suggesting there were some encouraging downward revisions to prior months.

Economists said price increases slowed in categories that feed into consumer inflation.

Before Powell's remarks, futures markets were betting the Fed would cut rates by a quarter point in September and December.

At the same time, while Powell didn't rule out a rate increase, he repeated that it's not likely.

"I don't think it's likely that the next move will be a rate hike," he said. "It's more likely we'll be holding the policy rate where it is" until inflation resumes a swifter decline, a development that Powell said he expects.

He added, "My confidence in that is not as high as it was."