Analysis-Steady Fed outlook boosts stock market’s hopes for coveted ‘soft landing’

A U.S. stock market perched at record highs received an encouraging message from the Federal Reserve, after the central bank stuck with its rate cut projections for 2024 despite stronger-than-expected economic growth. On Wednesday, however, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the evidence of economic strength had not changed the Fed's expectations that price pressures will continue to ease. While the central bank substantially upgraded its economic growth forecasts, it left unchanged its projection for a total of 75 basis points in rate cuts for 2024, a reassuring signal for investors who have piled into stocks on expectations of an economic "soft landing," in which the Fed is able to tame inflation without hurting growth.