United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that interest rates should be lowered, "something which would go hand in hand with upcoming tariffs." The Federal Reserve decided to hold rates at its latest monetary policy meeting on January 29.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will not lower rates until it sees "real" progress on bringing inflation to the 2% target or weakness in the labor market. The latest report on the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the PCE price index, put the annual rate at 2.6%.