Powell's "finale" tonight! Another Powell's remarks on inflation and rate cuts could be crucial! Fed Chairman Powell's speech later this week will be his last public speech before the Fed's next meeting, and he may try to reconcile the bucking U.S. economy with officials' assessment that monetary policy is "restrictive" and inflation may be falling. Powell will participate in a question-and-answer session at 1:15 the next day. Both of these Fed ideas have been questioned in recent times by non-farm, "horror data", inflation and other data that continue to challenge the Fed's expectations that the economy was sliding toward its goal of falling demand, slowing growth and price increases close to 2% at the beginning of this year. Just five weeks ago, Powell told a U.S. Senate committee that the Fed was "not far away" from gaining the confidence of inflation retreat needed to cut rates, but policymakers, investors and outside analysts have since begun to lose some confidence in that prospect. In the days after Powell's testimony, futures contracts tied to the Fed's policy rate reflected the possibility of an initial quarter-point rate cut at the Fed's June 11-12 meeting, with two more rate cuts by the end of 2024.