Marketmind: Powell pushback puts cloud 9 beyond reach

A slightly exaggerated market reaction to Fed chair Jerome Powell's pushback against early U.S. interest rate cuts was enough to spoil the weekend and keep the S&P500 from extending an eighth straight daily gain. Powell's set-piece on Thursday clearly leaned more hawkish than investors had hoped – refusing to rule out another rate hike and saying the central bank was not yet confident its policy stance was restrictive enough to get inflation back to the 2% target. "If it becomes appropriate to tighten policy further, we will not hesitate to do so," Powell cautioned a market still betting both that rate hikes are done and that three cuts are coming next year, starting as soon as June.