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The Federal Reserve chose to pause rate cuts, even as it faces relentless attacks from President Trump for not cutting borrowing costs fast enough.
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Chair Jay Powell says robust growth and steadying jobs market show borrowing costs are not ‘restrictive'
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The Federal Reserve pushed the pause button on its interest rate cuts Wednesday, leaving its key rate unchanged at about 3.6% after lowering it three times last year.
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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday released its decision on interest rates.
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The central bank cut rates at its three previous meetings in an effort to support the job market. But with inflation still elevated, the Fed is cautious about additional rate cuts.
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Wednesday's selling carried into Thursday as investors continued to take a risk-off approach to markets following the Federal Reserve's latest policy announcement.
The central bank issued its third jumbo-sized rate increase yesterday and set expectations that it will continue to hike rates over its next few meetings. However, the Fed is not alone in its aggressive stance. Several global central banks have increased their benchmark rates this week in an ongoing effort to tame inflation, including the Bank of England and Switzerland's National Bank, which earlier today issued 50 basis point and 75 basis point rate hikes, respectively. (A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.)
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"Global equities are struggling as the world anticipates surging rates will trigger a much sooner and possibly severe global recession," says Edward Moya, senior market strategist at currency data provider OANDA. "Most of these rate hikes around the world are not done yet which means the race to restrictive territory won't be over until closer to the end of the year."
The reaction here at home was a selloff in bond prices, which sent yields on government notes spiking. The 10-year Treasury yield surged 19.2 basis points to 3.704% - its highest level since early 2011 - while the 2-year Treasury yield spiked 12.1 basis points to 4.116%, its loftiest perch since late 2007.
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As for stocks, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
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