Powell’s speech comes amid unprecedented pressure from the White House aimed at getting the central bank to lower borrowing costs.

If inflation starts climbing again after a rate cut, “the Fed will have to reverse course—and in the worst case, start hiking again,” Slok said.

Brent Donnelly of Spectra Markets ran a sizeable survey of expectations for Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech, and of the 473 responses, 51% expect a neutral-to-boring outcome and 43% see a hawkish tint.

Wall Street fell to a fifth straight loss on Thursday, hurt by a drop for Walmart and dampened hopes for coming cuts to interest rates. The S&P 500 slipped 0.4%. All its losses have been relatively modest,