Fed's Powell Flags Careful, Patient Approach After Rate Cut 

• Policymakers began taking stock of what could become a more complex economic landscape when President-elect Donald Trump takes office next year.
• Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the results of Tuesday's presidential election, which paved the way for a U.S. chief executive who has pledged widespread deportation of immigrants, broad-based tariffs, and tax cuts, would have no "near-term" impact on U.S. monetary policy.
• Powell said the Fed will continue assessing data to determine the "pace and destination" of interest rates as officials reset currently tight monetary policy to account for inflation that has slowed markedly in the past year and is nearing the U.S. central bank's 2% target.
• But as the new administration's proposals take shape, the Fed chief said the central bank would begin estimating the impact on its twin goals of stable inflation and maximum employment.
• Inflation has since fallen and Fed policy rates are coming down as well, a process Powell said is still expected to lead over time to a more neutral rate of interest that neither stimulates nor restrains the economy.
• Yet the exact destination remains unknown and may become even harder to pin down if fiscal and tax policies change as rapidly as Trump has pledged, particularly given the political tailwind of Republican control of the U.S. Senate and possibly the House of Representatives.

(Source: Reuters)