Did Powell just stamp out  bankers’ green shoots?

INVESTMENT bankers were finally starting to believe in the green shoots of capital-markets activity this month, but the Federal Reserve might now have crushed them under hawkish boots.

After a dire 18 months or so for deals and financing activity, September has brought a promising burst, particularly for new stock market listings and leveraged loan sales, both of which require decent appetite among investors to buy into riskier assets.

Trouble is, investor attitudes could be knocked by the message delivered by the Fed along with its decision to hold interest rates steady at Wednesday’s (Sep 20) meeting. Chairman Jerome Powell wants to convince the market that more rises could still come, while a majority of board members favour another hike before the year-end.