Wall Street pushes out rate-cut expectations, sees risk of no action until 2025 [Video]

If there was any doubt before, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has pretty much cemented the likelihood that there won’t be interest rate reductions anytime soon.

Now, Wall Street is wondering if the central bank will cut at all this year.

That’s because Powell on Tuesday said there’s been “a lack of further progress” on lowering inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target, meaning “it’s likely to take longer than expected” to get enough confidence to start easing back on policy.

“They’ve got the economy right where they want it. They now are just focused on inflation numbers. The question is, what’s the bar here?” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “My sense is they need two, probably three consecutive months of inflation numbers that are consistent with that …