Jerome Powell

Stocks are coming off a sharp drop the prior day after the head of the Federal Reserve warned it could speed up its hikes to interest rates if pressure on inflation stays high

Wall Street had already been convincing itself that higher rates than earlier thought were on the way and that the Fed may even possibly go back to larger rate increases following last month’s data reports

Powell’s comments raise the possibility that the Fed will increase its key interest rate by a half-percentage point at its next meeting March 21-22

For a few weeks in late January and early February, the economy seemed to have reached a rare sweet spot. Then something went wrong

Powell’s first appearance before Congress in nine months coincides with recent signs that the economy remains resilient and inflation still stubbornly high

Inflation, measured year over year, has cooled since it reached 9.1% in June, having slowed to 6.4% in January

Several factors likely helped propel last month’s spending

The president also nominates longtime adviser Jared Bernstein to be chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers

His remarks followed the government’s blockbuster report last week that employers added 517,000 jobs in January, nearly double December’s gain

The Federal Reserve is poised this week to raise its benchmark interest rate for an eighth time since March

The Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes have had the desired effect, with some help from declining energy prices

The main US indexes declined after positive unemployment figures were announced on Friday. Is the sector just inherently evil?

Chairman Jerome Powell could apply a 0.75 percentage point hike in a bid to cool inflation, while some observers say the increase will be as high as one entire point