NEW YORK — US Treasury yields rose on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said it’s too soon to say whether the central bank will cut its interest rate target in September.
“We have made no decisions about September, we don’t…do that in advance,” Powell said at a press conference after the Fed held interest rates steady at the end of a two-day policy meeting, as widely expected.
He said going forward, “we’ll be taking that information” about the economy in the run-up to the next central bank gathering.
In standing pat for a fifth straight policy meeting, the Fed cited low unemployment and solid labor market conditions. But it noted that economic growth “moderated in the first half of the year,” boosting the case to lower rates at a future meeting should that trend continue.
The Fed kept its benchmark overnight interest rate tethered in the 4.25 percent-4.50 percent range. Wednesday’s Fed decision, however, saw two dissenting votes by governors, the most in more than three decades.
