Interest rate futures tracking expectations for Federal Reserve policy moves fell on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said recent data on inflation have not given policymakers the greater confidence needed for them to pivot to interest rate cuts soon.
"The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence and instead indicate that it's likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence," Powell said at a forum in Washington.
The drop in rate futures prices after his remarks indicated traders see slimmer prospects for the Fed to cut rates more than one time this year. As recently as two weeks ago, rate futures markets were priced for three cuts of a quarter-percentage point each by year end.
