Consumers and traders are waiting to learn if the Fed’s pause is a one-meeting hold or the start of a longer stretch.

After three cuts at the end of last year, Federal Reserve officials paused rate moves as they weigh a solid economy and rising inflation risks. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said the central bank was not on a “pre-set course.

The US Federal Reserve is in no "hurry" to adjust interest rates again, the central bank's chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday, after policymakers voted to pause rate cuts in the first decision since Donald Trump's White House return.