Powell's Fed Days: No More Gifts for Wall Street

The predictable gains that investors used to make by buying stocks and bonds before Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's post-FOMC press conferences and selling them afterwards seem to be over. The wild volatility that marked the beginning of the hiking cycle is slowly disappearing as inflation cools, the economy normalizes, and the Fed nears the end of its rate hikes. Traders now have less room to misinterpret Powell's comments, and the predictability of future rates is greater. Some theories suggest that investors heard what they wanted to hear, interpreting Powell's words to align with their desire for rock-bottom interest rates and the end of the hiking cycle.