All eyes on Fed chief Powell if he can pull off high-wire act of balancing growth and inflation

US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell used his appearance at Jackson Hole last Friday (Aug 26) to shut the door on hopes for a “pivot” in central bank policy.

He caught bullish stock-market traders’ horns in the door, causing one of the biggest routs on broad indexes this year. Strategists say the bear market could be back with a vengeance as investors hunker down for a long winter of sky-high fuel prices and an aggressive central bank.

In the weeks leading up to the central-banking confab, the speculation on stock and bond markets was that the Fed would use the occasion to acknowledge a lessening of inflationary pressures and a moderation in economic growth, setting the table for a pivot in rate policy.