Given economic reports over the last few months, there was no surprise that the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve decided to hold the benchmark federal funds rate target range steady at 5.25% to 5.50%.

While reporters kept asking for timelines or indications of how things might change going forward, Fed Chair Jerome Powell made a couple of remarks that suggest there would be no cut until the September FOMC meeting at the earliest, making three cuts highly unlikely and even putting pressure on expecting two.

"The Committee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent," the post-vote FOMC statement said.