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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said interest rates are in the right place to manage continued uncertainty around tariffs and inflation, tempering expectations for a rate cut in September.
“There are many, many uncertainties left to resolve,” Powell told reporters Wednesday following the central bank’s decision to once again keep rates unchanged. “It doesn’t feel like we are very close to the end of that process.”
The Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-2 to hold its benchmark federal funds rate in a range of 4.25%-4.5%, as they have at each of their meetings this year. Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman voted against the decision in favor of a quarter-point cut.
Meanwhile Meta Platforms Inc. topped projections for second-quarter sales and gave a stronger-than-expected forecast for the current period, a sign that the social media company’s advertising business is still growing quickly enough to support aggressive spending on artificial intelligence. The social media giant, which owns Instagram and Facebook, reported second-quarter revenue of $47.5 billion.
As for Microsoft Corp., it was another better-than-expected quarter for growth in its cloud business and the company said spending on AI infrastructure hit a record. The closely watched Azure cloud-computing unit posted a 39% rise in sales during Microsoft’s fiscal fourth quarter, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Analysts projected 34% revenue growth.
Today's show features:
- Karen Veraa-Perry, Head of US iShares Fixed Income Strategy at BlackRock on the Federal Reserve’s rate decision
- Dan Ives, Global Head of Technology Research at Wedbush Securities, and Bloomberg Intelligence Global Head of Technology Research Mandeep Singh on Meta earnings
- Greg Halter, Director of Research at Carnegie Investment Counsel, and Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst Anurag Rana on Microsoft earnings
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