**Fed chief Powell is talking about the U.S. economy again. And Wall Street is all ears.**
How much, and how fast, is the Fed going to cut interest rates?
By
Jeffry Bartash
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Last Updated: Sept. 22, 2025 at 6:04 p.m. ET First Published: Sept. 22, 2025 at 4:56 p.m. ET
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Jerome Powell addresses the media in July.Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Wall Street has been hanging on every word of Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell as stocks charged to record highs. Investors hope he’ll give more clues Tuesday as to how much the Fed intends to cut U.S. interest rates.
The durability of the bull market — not to mention the health of the economy — could be influenced by what he has to say.
Powell is set to deliver his economic forecast in a lunchtime speech in Rhode Island, just days after the central bank reduced a key rate for the first time this year. The rate reduction triggered the latest stock-market rally.
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If past is prologue, Powell probably won’t break new ground. Yet investors are sure to sift through his remarks to guess at the timing and size of future rate cuts.
Betting markets predict the Fed will trim its benchmark short-term rate by a quarter-point at each of its two final meetings of 2025 in October and December. More cuts are expected next year, but the Fed’s own forecast suggests it will move slower than many investors believe.
Powell is viewed by Fed watchers on Wall Street
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as supportive of additional rate cuts this year to help ensure that unemployment doesn’t rise much further.
The Fed chairman backed a rate cut last week — in what he called a “risk management” move — because of emerging weakness in the labor market. Hiring has slowed to a crawl. The jobless rate has crept higher. And it’s taking a lot longer for people who lose one job to find another.
At the same time, though, inflation has wafted higher and moved further away from the Fed’s 2% target. The rate of inflation is almost 3% based on the most recent reading of the consumer-price index.
Powell and other Fed officials have stressed they have to be mindful of the risks to both of their two legally mandated goals: to keep inflation low and to maintain a strong labor market.
For now the Fed is more worried about jobs.