POWELL SPEECH: UNEXPECTED WEAKENING IN LABOR MARKET WOULD MAKE US CUT RATES SOONER

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell explains the decision to leave the policy rate, federal funds rate, unchanged at the range of 5.25-5.5% and responds to questions in the post-meeting press conference.

Key quotes

"We are not looking for a slide in employment, but would cut rates if we saw a weakening."

"If we saw unexpected weakening in the labor market, that would make us cut rates sooner."

"In the base case, where the economy is healthy with a strong labor market, we can be careful as we think about rate cut timing."

"There was no proposal to cut rates today."

"SEP is good evidence of where FOMC is at in terms of forecasts."

"There is a wide disparity of views on the Committee