Powell Slightly Hawkish Ahead of December Meeting

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes both gained about 1% and 1.5% in the moments following Powell’s speech

share

Inflation is far from over, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday, but a rate-hike slowdown is still on the table for December. Regardless, according to the central bank head, rates will keep rising and remain high “for some time.” 

“It will take substantially more evidence to give comfort that inflation is actually declining,” Powell said during an appearance at the Brookings Institute in Washington. “By any standard, inflation remains much too high.”

Markets immediately rallied on the news. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes both gained about 1% and 1.5% in the moments following Powell’s speech, respectively. Crypto also jumped into the green, with bitcoin and ether rising 3% and 5.3%, respectively. 

“We need to raise interest rates to a level that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2%,” Powell said. “There’s considerable uncertainty about what rate will be sufficient.”

Stable prices can only be achieved through supply and demand management, Powell said — adding that reaching the central bank’s inflation target is likely going to require more-tempered growth. Waning of pandemic-era easy monetary policy, raising housing prices and global unrest have also contributed to the economy’s sluggish pace, Powell added. 

The speech comes weeks after the Fed’s last rate-setting meeting on Nov. 2 when the central bank opted to raise interest rates by 0.75% for the fourth straight time. The US central bank cited slowing consumer spending and production levels.

In June, when the central bank opted to raise rates 75 basis points for the first time this cycle, Powell called the move “unusually large.”  But if current conditions persist, higher increases could become the norm, he later warned.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (19).png

Research

Suilend has grown into the top money market and liquid staking provider on Sui. STEAMM, Suilend’s Superfluid AMM, presents a compelling avenue for growing market share within Sui’s DEX landscape and revenue generation for the protocol. Suilend’s multi-product suite position it well for owning market share across key verticals. While current metrics across the Sui ecosystem are likely inflated due to Sui Foundation incentive programs, SEND trades at amongst the lowest multiples in the lend/borrow sector, suggesting that a bull case for continued growth in the ecosystem may be mispriced.

article-image

Silk Road founder Ulbricht made a triumphant return to the Bitcoin Conference, 10 years on from sentencing

article-image

A Blockworks Research report looked at who could take up some of the marketshare in the launchpad space

article-image

Business-to-business stablecoin payments are on the rise, per a report from Artemis, Dragonfly and Castle Island

article-image

Crypto continues to do its thing: incentivizing behavior

article-image

Kraken will soon offer Backed ‘xStocks’ as Solana tokens

article-image

In a unanimous decision, the US Court of International Trade has ruled that Trump’s IEEPA tariffs are unlawful