Jerome Powell is heading to Capitol Hill Tuesday and Wednesday for his congressional testimony in front of lawmakers.
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Powell's comments will focus on the U.S. economy and interest rates, meaning Wall Street will pay close attention.
The Federal Reserve is expected to meet later this month, and CME's FedWatch tool shows a 70% probability for a 25 basis point hike.
Kenny Polcari, author of the Morning Thoughts newsletter wrote about the Fed and what he expects to hear from Jerome Powell after commentary from various Fed officials.
"My sense is that [the Federal Reserve] lost control last year, and have remained behind the 8 ball ever since and that rates – in my opinion – will need to go higher still. The market had been pricing in a 5.1% - 5.4% rate environment, while the FED (thank you Loretta Mester and others) have suggested a 5.5% - 6% range which was putting pressure on stocks - but then last week – we got some mixed comments out of a couple of FED heads, comments that were interpreted as being more dovish – with Chris Waller identifying a terminal rate of 5.1% - 5.4%.....below the 5.5% - 6% rate we had been pricing in…and that caused the last ‘bear market rally’…
Powell, in prepared comments, did warn that interest rates are probably going to be higher than previously expected,
“The latest economic data have come in stronger than expected, which suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated,” Powell said. “If the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes.”
And there are more layoffs happening at Meta.
The report comes from Bloomberg, which would cut more staff and add to the 13% of Meta workers who were laid off late last year.
The company, formerly known as Facebook, has faced scrutiny after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the tech company would be pivoting to focus on the Metaverse a few years ago.
However, the company is also facing challenges on its ad front after Apple made a 2021 privacy update that made it more difficult for advertisers to use target capabilities.
Zuckerberg said in February that 2023 was going to be the "year of efficiency" for Meta.
