The Fed has shown a steel will so far in trying to tame inflation, and the conditions are not yet ripe for adding more duration risk to portfolios with short-term options perhaps more appealing. In some ways, market watchers’ desire to read between the lines of Powell’s speech comes from avoiding his actual message: We’re not close to hitting a 2% inflation target. Market watchers may anticipate maybe one more rate hikes, but earlier in 2023 talking heads were discussing cuts possibly happening this year.