Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said Thursday the central bank's interest rate-setting committee is taking a cautious approach and would watch economic data to determine the course of its campaign to to t🍌ame inflation through restrictive 🐼monetary policy.

“Given the uncertainties and risks, and how far we have come, the Committee is proceeding carefully,” Powell said in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. “We will make decisions about the extent of additional policy firming and how long policy will remain restrictive based on the tot𝕴ality of the incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”

His comments are in line with those of other recent comments from Fed officials and have helped solidify the notion - at least in the eyes of financial market participants - that an interest rate hike is unlikely when the澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网: Federal Open Market Committee meets next month.

Powell’s comments highlighted the tightrope that officials at the central bank are walking as they determine how high to set the Fed’s benchmark interest rate, which influences the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:🍷interest rates you pay for mortgages, car loans, and c💫redit cards among other things. 

The Fed is trying to keep the rate—currently at a 22-year high point—high enough that it restricts borrowing and spending by businesses and individuals, slowing economic activity and driving down today’s high inflation. If the rate is too high though, the economy slows so much that a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:recession and mass unemployment could ensue.

In his speech, Powell highlighted the risks of both too-high or too-low rates.

“Doing too little could allow above-target inflation to become entrenched and ultimately require monetary policy to wring more persistent inflation from the economy at a high cost to employment,” he said. “Doing too much could also do unnecessary harm to the economy.”

For financial market participants, Powell’s remarks seemed to put the nail in the coffin of the already unlikely possibility of another rate hike in November. Markets were pricing in a 1% chance of another rate hike Thursday afternoon, down from a 6% chance on Wednesday, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which predicts Fed rate hikes based on fed futures trading data.

Markets pay close attention to every word of every Federal Reserve official—澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:especially Powell—because the Fed’s all-important interest rate has a heavy influence on the economy and♑ the bottom 💙lines of businesses.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk provided a glimpse into how those interest rates influence business decisions Wednesday in an earnings call. He lamented that 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:high borrowing costs on car loans—a result of the Fed’s rate hikes—were making his company’s vehicles less affordable for customers. Lower interest rates would boost demand for cars, he said, and make it more likely that Tesla would expand its production and build a new factory in Mexico.

“If you can tell me what the interest rates are, I can tell you when we should build the factory,” Musk said.

Of concern for business executives like Musk, as well as eve🌜ryday investors, Powell’s speech left open the possibility of more rate hikes down the road if inflation doesn’t c🐬ontinue its downward trajectory.

Powell said he was encouraged that inflation was running at 3.5% over the past year according to the Fed’s preferr♉ed measure of inflation, as of September. That's half of the recent peak of 7.1% in June 2022, though still far from the central bank’s goal of a 2% annual rate. He said inflation was still too high and noted several factors that could push it up, including the fact that consumers 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:seem hell-bꦡent on ramping up their spending no matter how hard th🐲e Fed makes it to borrow moneඣy.

Powell’s call for caution capped off a week of Fed officials 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:making similar comments. Most recently, Fed governor Christopher J. Waller, speaking at a seminar in London Wednesday, said it was “too soon to tell” whether more rate hikes would be needed.

“My views on the appropriate path for policy will be based on a careful assessment of incoming data and financial market developments⛄ and a judgment about whether we are continuing on a path of sustained progress toward 2% inflation,” he said, according to prepared remarks.

Correction - Oct. 19, 2023: A previous version of this article misidentified June 2022's inflation. It was 7.1%.