The central bank’s decision to pause at its first meeting of 2025 followed a series of cuts that began in September to account for progress already made on getting inflation down. Over the course of three meetings, the Fed lowered rates by a full percentage point to a range of 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent, which was maintained on Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve opted to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged in its first policy meeting since President Trump's inauguration.

Consumers and traders are waiting to learn if the Fed’s pause is a one-meeting hold or the start of a longer stretch.

Fed chair Jerome Powell said he has not talked with Trump since the president demanded last week “interest rates drop immediately.”

That’s the prediction of Bank of America economists who think Canada’s central bank will cut 25 basis points on Jan. 29 and then hold its key rate at 3 per cent. “We expect the forward guidance to signal a pause as the BoC waits to see how both domestic activity and U.S. trade policy play out,” said the economists led by Carlos Capistran.

The president bashed Jerome Powell on inflation less than two hours after the Fed chair announced interest rates would stay put. As Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan may attest, Trump’s timing is not coincidental.

It takes time for the Fed’s decisions to filter through the economy — and then even more time for consumers to see the difference.

You’d expect the Mafia to be debanked, but when even members of the PayPal Mafia are debanked on a whim, it’s time to sound the alarm. In 2019, Roelof Botha—Managing Partner at Sequoia Capital and an

Nonetheless, already there is a clash with President Trump, who believes interest rates are “far too high." On his Truth Social platform, Trump went on the attack: Because Jay Powell and the Fed failed to stop the problem they created with Inflation,

The Federal Reserve decided to delay additional rate cuts for now and keep interest rates unchanged at its first meeting of the year, giving themselves time to assess whether inflation is cooling and how President Donald Trump’s policies might impact the U.S. economy.

Many of the region’s biggest equity markets — including those in Hong Kong, mainland China and South Korea — are closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.