Fed Chair Powell to deliver fresh economic view as tariffs inject uncertainty

Ann Saphir and Howard Schneider

Wed, Apr 16, 2025, 3:13 AM 3 min read

By Ann Saphir and Howard Schneider

(Reuters) - With U.S. President Donald Trump's erratic tariff argumentation injecting tremendous uncertainty into the economical outlook, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell connected Wednesday volition for the 2nd clip successful little than 2 weeks measurement successful with his consciousness of what's successful store for Americans connected ostentation and jobs, and what the cardinal slope whitethorn bash astir it if they veer disconnected course.

Powell past spoke connected April 4 successful what proved to beryllium an in-between play - 2 days aft Trump's announcement of a planetary baseline tariff of 10% connected astir U.S. imports and hefty further levies connected goods from dozens of cardinal trading partners, and 5 days earlier Trump abruptly enactment the second duties, with the objection of China, connected clasp for 90 days successful the look of the ensuing fiscal marketplace upheaval.

In that fleeting moment, Powell had already assessed that tariffs would apt mean a challenging premix of higher ostentation and slower growth, perchance forcing the Fed to take which to fight. Still, helium voiced fundamentally a wait-and-see approach, saying "it is excessively soon to accidental what volition beryllium the due way for monetary policy."

Just however overmuch Trump's impermanent locomotion backmost - and the accompanying hold of uncertainty - determination Powell beyond that, if astatine all, volition beryllium the halfway of attraction for investors battered by days of the top volatility successful planetary fiscal markets since the onset of the pandemic 5 years ago.

Global stocks were sent into a tailspin connected fearfulness the bigger-than-expected acceptable of levies would trigger an economical downturn. Turmoil gripped the enslaved market, wherever 10-year Treasury yields surged by the astir successful decades and contributed to Trump's abrupt about-face connected astir of his "reciprocal" tariffs adjacent arsenic helium ratcheted up levies connected imports from China to a searing 145%.

Powell is owed to present prepared remarks astatine 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) earlier the Economic Club of Chicago and volition tract questions from a moderator arsenic well.

Complicating his communications situation is the information that much tariff quality is connected tap. After Trump unexpectedly exempted immoderate electronics from tariffs for now, his medication has besides commenced investigations expected to effect successful caller levies connected pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

Earlier this week Fed Governor Christopher Waller said that if Trump continues to peel backmost tariffs to a little baseline, the cardinal slope would bash good to bent choky connected involvement rates successful the archetypal fractional of this twelvemonth and possibly chopped gradually successful the 2nd fractional arsenic tariff-elevated ostentation subsides. If Trump sticks to higher tariffs, Waller said, the unemployment complaint could leap and the Fed would request to chopped much aggressively.