The market is blowing off what the Fed is saying about rates

The central bank’s projections for fewer rate cuts this year and Powell’s seemingly hawkish comments at his press conference on Wednesday didn’t prevent the S&P 500 Index from eclipsing 5,400 for the first time ever, which also happened on Wednesday and held through at least Friday. The benchmark is up more than 50% since hitting a bottom in October 2022, during a bear market triggered by the Fed’s drastic interest rate increases that started in March 2022 and were aimed at taming runaway inflation.