Stocks saw their biggest decline since September after Jerome Powell said the Federal Reserve wants to keep its options open instead of rushing to cut interest rates.
Speaking after the January Fed decision, Powell said he doesn’t think it’s likely the central bank will ease policy in March. In a sign that officials are not in a hurry to lower rates, the central bank also said it “does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 per cent.”
“If stock bulls expected a rate cut in March, Powell seems to have closed the door on that,” said Oscar Munoz at TD Securities.
The S&P 500 fell 1.6 per cent. Losses were led by big tech — the group that has powered the bull-market run. Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. slumped after disappointing investors betting that an artificial-intelligence bonanza would quickly fuel…
