Local time on January 28th, the U.S. Federal Reserve concluded a two-day monetary policy meeting and announced that it would keep the target range of the federal funds rate unchanged between 3.5% and 3.75%, in line with general market expectations. In this resolution, 10 out of 12 Federal Open Market Committee members expressed support, while 2 voted against and advocated a 25-basis-point interest rate cut.

Federal Reserve Chairman Powell held a press conference after the meeting, avoiding topics such as his own future, U.S. dollar exchange rate fluctuations and criminal investigations, but clearly emphasized that the Federal Reserve will be committed to safeguarding its independence and advised his successor to “not get involved in electoral politics”. Powell said that current U.S. economic activity is “expanding steadily”, but job growth remains sluggish and inflation is still at a relatively high level, and future monetary policy decisions will be completely based on new economic data.

It is reported that the U.S. Department of Justice has previously served a subpoena on Powell, threatening to file criminal charges against him for his testimony before the Senate in June 2025. Powell has stated that the relevant charges are all “pretexts”, which are actually because the Federal Reserve did not set interest rates in accordance with the president’s wishes. Data from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange shows that the market believes the probability that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged at its next monetary policy meeting has risen to 88.6%, and it is expected that after inflation peaks in the middle of this year, the Federal Reserve may have the possibility of easing monetary policy.