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Watch Live: Fed Chair Powell Returns To Hill For Day 2 Of Testimony

• https://www.zerohedge.com

The US stock market loved Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's Tuesday testimony to the Senate Banking Committee as the recently-installed Fed chair affirmed that the US economic expansion is chugging along, and that inflation is growing in line with the central bank's expectations - meaning that the central bank could be preparing for as many as two hikes of the central bank's baseline rate before the end of this year.

Powell is returning to the Hill Wednesday for part two of his semi-annual testimony. This time, he will speak before the House Financial Services Committee, with his testimony expected to begin at 10 am Wednesday.

Watch it live below:

During his testimony before the Senate yesterday, Powell fielded questions on banking regulations and a few about the central bank's monetary policy outlook (though he was circumspect about his personal outlook, presumably to avoid accidentally hammering stocks lower like he did in February).

While analysts have largely predicted that Powell will "play it safe" during this week's testimony, analyst Nick Colas of DataTrek Research argued that if Powell does have a goal for his testimony, it's that he'd like to convince markets to more completely price in two interest-rate hikes before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the WSJ published a roundup of the major topics it expects will be discussed today, ranging from the impact on trade tensions on the US economy to the central bank's plans for shrinking its balance sheet.

Below is a chart showing the Fed's "dot plot" of individual officials' projections vs. the market.


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