Overview
- The Federal Reserve kept its key rate at 3.50%–3.75% Wednesday, extending a pause that has held borrowing costs steady since December.
- Powell said he will remain as a Fed governor after his chair term ends May 15, citing ongoing political and legal pressure that he says risks weakening the institution.
- Kevin Warsh, Trump’s pick to replace Powell, won party-line approval in a Senate committee earlier Wednesday, with a full Senate vote still to come.
- The policy statement recorded four dissents, the most in decades, with Governor Stephen Miran urging a cut and three regional bank chiefs objecting to language that could hint at future easing.
- Powell noted a prosecutor close to the president said a probe tied to him was closed but not definitively ended, and he cautioned that inflation pressures—helped by higher energy costs—could show up in Thursday’s March PCE report.