It took a more aggressive stance than expected, stating that there is “quite a bit of room” for US rates to rise.

The FTSE 100 index was struggling for direction this morning, trailing the Nasdaq, which gave up an initial 3.5% gain to finish mostly unchanged last night.

As expected, Jerome Powell announced that rates will rise in March. However, he did not rule out future hikes as high as half a percentage point.

Banks - such as Standard Chartered and HSBC - and miners – including Rio Tinto and Glencore - are leading the FTSE today, although Fresnillo is down at the bottom after announcing that the pandemic and the new labor reform in Mexico is hampering its mining operations, and forecast lower gold production for this year.

Things to read today:

Supply chain crisis is the only drag on Apple’s enormous growth (Financial Times)

Fed Interest Rate Decision Tees up March Increase (WSJ)

Market Turmoil is Ultimate Test of What’s Real and What is Not (Bloomberg)