The Federal Reserve has opted to hold interest rates where they are. Coming out of the FOMC's January meeting, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told the press that it is unlikely "the committee will reach a level of confidence by the time of the March meeting" to enact rate cuts.

Yahoo Finance Fed Reporter Jennifer Schonberger recaps the biggest takeaways from Chair Powell's comments and what Fed officials will be looking for in future inflation prints.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

- Moving on, the Fed keeping interest rates steady here while tempering expectations on rate cuts ahead. Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger here with the very latest, fresh off Fed Chair Jerome Powell's press conference. Jen.

JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Good afternoon, Josh. For those hoping for a rate cut as early as March, Fed Chair Powell seemingly pouring cold water on that, saying that he probably won't have enough confidence from the data at that point to begin cutting. Take a listen.

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JEROME POWELL: I don't think it's likely that the committee will reach a level of confidence by the time of the March meeting to identify March as the time to do that. But that's, that's to be seen. So I wouldn't call, when you say, when you ask me about in the near term, I'm hearing that as March. I would say, I don't think that's probably not the most likely case or what we would call the base case.

JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: Of course, the Fed believes that they have likely reached the peak on rates in the current cycle, and that they will begin cutting sometime this year, certainly not looking like March though based on what the Fed Chair has just said. But he says the economy has continued to surprise to the upside. And so it remains to be seen whether they're going to continue to see progress toward that goal.

He says to feel more confident that inflation is moving sustainably back towards 2%, it's not that he needs to see better data, he just needs to see more data, right? We've had six months of inflation, around 1.9% as measured by their favorite inflation gauge PCE. He's going to need to see more months of that data to feel confident to begin cutting. Now, when they do begin cutting, he said it could be a one off cut, or it could be the beginning of a rate cutting cycle, it's just going to depend on the data.

He said, Powell said, they're not ready to declare victory quite yet, and that we are definitely going to get a soft landing. It's going to remain contingent on the data, of course. Now, when it comes to the balance sheet, Powell said that they're going to begin formal discussions on that at the March meeting. They haven't quite broached that at this time. Guys.

- Jennifer Schonberger, thank you so much for bringing us all that. A little bit of surprising press conference when all was said and done. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.