Just weeks ago, the Federal Reserve sounded more upbeat than it had in a while. While not a slam dunk, progress on reducing inflation and clearing a way for rate cuts was steady. Members of the Fed looked toward three rate cuts in 2024.

Inflation, both in the Consumer Product Index and Personal Consumption Expenditures, has been proving itself more resilient than previously thought, and the jobs numbers have topped expectations. As a result, the Fed is signaling that expectations of immediate rate cuts are perhaps not sound.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has consistently emphasized that the key to eventual rate cuts would be an ongoing picture "good" economic data showing an approach to a 2% inflation rate. However, "'recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence and instead indicate that it is likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence,' Powell said at a moderated question-and-answer session in Washington," according to the Wall Street Journal.