The Fed Chair made the remarks while speaking at an event in Providence, Rhode Island.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that equity prices are “fairly highly valued,” while speaking at an event in Providence, Rhode Island.
“We do look at overall financial conditions, and we ask ourselves whether our policies are affecting financial conditions in a way that is what we’re trying to achieve,” Powell said in response to a question on how much emphasis the Fed places on market prices and whether it tolerates higher valuations. “But you’re right, by many measures, for example, equity prices are fairly highly valued.”
On mortgage rates, Powell added, “Markets listen to us and follow, and they make an estimation of where they think rates are going. And so they’ll price things in.”
Despite noting elevated equity valuations, Powell said this is “not a time of elevated financial stability risks.”
U.S. equities dipped in afternoon trading Tuesday following Powell’s address in Rhode Island, where he also described the economic outlook as a “challenging situation” and stated that there was no “risk-free” path to rate cuts.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was down 0.59%, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) slipped 0.24%, and the Nasdaq-100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) moved 0.67% lower. All three were among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits at the time of writing. Retail sentiment around QQQ on the platform remained in ‘neutral’ territory over the past day.
The crypto market also edged 0.1% lower in afternoon trade. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) each fell 0.4% in the last 24 hours, while Solana (SOL) took the heaviest hit among altcoins, with its price sliding nearly 2%. Retail sentiment around Solana on Stocktwits dipped to ‘neutral’ from ‘bullish’ territory over the past day.
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