Wall Street Today | Jerome Powell Says Interest Rates Likely to Rise Further

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank didn't raise interest rates last week, as it wanted to slow down its historically rapid pace of increases, but stressed it would likely lift rates again in coming months.

"We moved very quickly at the beginning, and we've slowed down. This is just a continuation of that," Powell said Thursday at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. The decision to hold rates steady, after 10 consecutive increases, was designed "to give ourselves more time -- to stretch out the time for making these decisions."

The latest, governor Michelle Bowman, outed herself on Thursday as part of the majority of FOMC members who believe additional rate hikes will be needed to bring down inflation to the Fed's target of 2%.

US equities are in for a tumultuous second half of the year as the lagging impacts of aggressive monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve catch up to the economy, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Marko Kolanovic.

He cautioned that multiple expansion and eroding pricing power make the risk-reward for US equities unattractive, adding another area of concern is "increasing investor complacency" ahead of a potential recession.

Smaller, speculative stocks have endured a historically weak stretch. Investors are betting that a turnaround is finally in the works.

Investors poured $1.6 billion into exchange-traded funds focused on small-cap stocks last week, according to data compiled by Jefferies. About $3.5 billion has flowed into small-stock ETFs since the start of the year.

The Russell 2000, an index of small and midsize companies with an average market value of just under $3 billion, has advanced 6.5% in June.

U.S. existing-home prices posted their biggest year-over-year decline in more than 11 years last month as rising interest rates continued to weigh on the housing market.

U.S. existing-home prices posted their biggest year-over-year decline in more than 11 years last month as rising interest rates continued to weigh on the housing market.

A federal judge started hearing arguments Thursday in the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit seeking to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard, a closely watched case that could determine the fate of their $75 billion proposed deal.

The Ford deal is the largest single investment in the office’s nearly 20-year history. It reached a deal with a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution for a $2.5 billion loan for battery production last year and has been committing billions more to the industry under former solar entrepreneur Jigar Shah, who became its director in 2021.