Monetary policy

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified in the House Tuesday on the heels of yet another pointed social media post from President Donald Trump. But House Republicans largely avoided landing political blows against the central bank chair.

The Federal Reserve chair appears before the House Financial Services Committee for his first of two days of testimony on Capitol Hill this week, part of his biannual monetary policy report to Congress.

Financial markets were shaken but not stirred this past spring, according to the Federal Reserve, as swinging stock prices and bond yields did little to bring down elevated asset prices or leverage. 

"I would be quite surprised if he did not make a choice that fair-minded observers on both sides recognized as a reasonable person," Summers said on Bloomberg Television.

The government measure of inflation for May ticked up modestly, adding to the signals that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to move on interest rates when it meets next month.

The Federal Reserve Board governor said higher import tariffs could have a "persistent" impact on inflation.

Fischer, who served on the central bank boards of both Israel and the United States and served as the Federal Reserve vice chair from 2014 until 2017, died Saturday at age 81.

Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said changes to the Federal Open Market Committee's quarterly economic projections could lead to clearer communication with markets and market participants.

The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation moved closer to the 2% target last month, but the impact of tariffs remains to be seen.

The Federal Reserve chair said he made no commitments on the central bank's next monetary policy adjustment, only that the decision would be made based on incoming data.