Fed Chair Jerome Powell Just Said 9 Words That Have Firmly Shifted the Narrative on Wall Street

1 hour ago 5

Sean Williams, The Motley Fool

Mon, May 11, 2026 astatine 4:26 AM CDT 4 min read

This is simply a history-making week for Wall Street's foremost fiscal institution, the Federal Reserve. Friday, May 15, volition people Jerome Powell's last time arsenic Fed seat and, presumably, the opening of Kevin Warsh's archetypal word arsenic the 17th Federal Reserve chair.

It whitethorn besides awesome a caller epoch for Wall Street and its large banal indexes: the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC).

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Even though Powell volition beryllium retired of the spotlight aft this week, he's nevertheless going retired with a bang. Nine words uttered by the outgoing Fed seat astatine the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) latest gathering awesome a steadfast displacement successful the communicative for the cardinal slope (and Wall Street).

Jerome Powell answering questions astatine The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.

Fed Chair Powell changed the communicative successful his last FOMC gathering

In immoderate respects, the April 29 FOMC gathering offered nary surprises. The 12 voting members of the FOMC liable for mounting the nation's monetary argumentation chose to support the national funds people complaint unchanged. But it's the nuances wrong the voting that truly stood out.

Though Powell has had the lowest dissent complaint per gathering of immoderate Fed seat implicit the past 48 years, the precocious April gathering featured 4 dissents -- the highest fig since 1992. One was Stephen Miran, who continues to propulsion for a chopped to the national funds people rate. The different 3 each disagreed with the inclusion of an easing bias statement.

Target Federal Funds Rate Upper Limit Chart

Between September 2024 and December 2025, the FOMC lowered the national funds people rate, which influences involvement rates, six times. But the combined terms shocks from President Trump's tariffs and the Iran warfare person had a decisive interaction connected U.S. inflation. These terms shocks person begun shifting however members of the FOMC attack their task of maximizing employment and stabilizing prices.

While fielding questions from reporters aft the April 29 FOMC meeting, Powell was asked by Yahoo! Finance's Jennifer Schonberger if the committee inactive had a bias toward complaint cuts, oregon if that had shifted. Powell's effect speaks volumes:

So I deliberation that, you know, the halfway is moving toward a much neutral place. And that's benignant of what markets are saying, too.

"The halfway is moving toward a much neutral place" is 9 words that intelligibly enactment a fork successful the imaginable of near-term complaint cuts and leaves the doorway wide unfastened for the FOMC to displacement to a neutral oregon hiking bias successful the not-too-distant aboriginal arsenic inflationary pressures prime up.

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