in a semiannual report to congress beginning tuesday at 10 am federal reserve chair jerome powell said the central bank will continue to up the temperature on what is already their most aggressive tightening campaign in decades powell’s testimony to the senate’s banking housing and urban affairs committee is expected to include a status report on the effectiveness of the fed’s decision to hike interest rates to a 16year high in order to combat inflation the target federal funds rate which determines the lending rate between banks and strongly influences borrowing costs nationwide was 45 to 475 on tuesday with yet another increase expected later this month stocks slid soon after powell took the stand with the dow jones industrial average sp 500 and techheavy nasdaq each losing more than 05 “we will stay the course until the job is done” powell said in prepared remarks saying the fed is willing to maintain a “faster” pace of rate hikes than previously expected “restoring price stability will likely require that we maintain a restrictive stance of monetary policy for some time” according to powell what to watch for powells report to congress continues on wednesday when he testifies before the house what we don’t know its unclear when the fed will stop raising rates but analysts at goldman sachs and bank of america added another rate hike to their forecasts after a hotterthanexpected inflation reading last month they now expect the central bank will raise rates to a top level of 55 which would mark the highest level since the turn of the millennium “markets are admitting the fed may not be close to done” sevens report founder tom essaye told clients in a note of the stock markets recent weakness this is a developing story please check back for updates stocks poised for rally—but don’t expect it to last forbes