Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday shot down Wall Street’s hopes for imminent rate cuts after central bankers kept the decades-high rate unchanged.

“I don’t think it’s likely the committee will reach a level of confidence by the time of the March meeting” to lower rates, “but that’s to be seen,” Powell said, referring to when the central bankers will next reconvene.

During his press conference following the two-day meeting, Powell said that a March cut is not the base case for the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee, which as expected kept rates steady at between 5.25%-5.50%, the highest in 22 years.

The central bankers said they do not “expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%,” the Fed’s inflation target.

“Inflation has eased over the past year, but remains elevated,” the Fed said, restating that officials “remain highly attentive to inflation risks.”

But the Fed also nodded to concerns about the employment side of its mission, and opened the door to lowering the policy rate if inflation, as expected, continues drifting lower in coming months.

“It will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year, but the economy has surprised forecasters in many ways since the pandemic and ongoing progress toward our 2% inflation objective is not assured,” Powell said.

The Dow plunged nearly 300 points after Powell’s press conference.

Analysts had forecast three rate cuts this year, with many predicting the first would come as early as March — though the latest inflation reading, which came in at a hotter-than-expected 3.4% in December, dampened those hopes.

“It is clear that the Fed are in no hurry to ease as rapidly as the market prices, with further promising inflation data still required in order to unlock the first rate reduction,” said Michael Brown, a market analyst at Pepperstone.

The Fed’s prior statement, issued on Dec. 13, had laid out the conditions under which it would consider “any additional policy firming,” language that excluded any consideration of rate cuts.

“We’re not there yet,” Greg McBride, the chief financial analyst at Bankrate, said of the timing for the first interest rate reduction.

“The Fed is certainly pushing back on the notion of a March interest rate cut, dashing investors’ hopes again, but keeping options open and remaining non-committal as a central bank does.”

Persistently-high inflation poses a threat to President Joe Biden’s prospects for reelection this year.

Progressive Democrat Ro Khanna has urged the Fed to start cutting rates before the fall or risk clearing the way for Donald Trump to win the presidency.

Any rate cuts would come as a relief to Americans, who have increasingly defaulted on their credit card payments as they’ve been squeezed by the economy.

Outstanding credit card balances surpassed $5 trillion for the first time in more than a decade, and all stages of credit card delinquencies — 30, 60 and 90 days past due — are higher than in 2019, according to a Philadelphia Federal Reserve report.

The rate for credit card holders who were 30 days late was 3.19%, up from 2.76% the previous quarter, the Philly Fed researchers found.

Those who hadn’t paid in 60 days or more spiked to 2.21% from 1.91%, and serious delinquency of three months or more rose to 1.52% from 1.32%, according to the data.

On the labor front, the economy added a surprisingly-strong 216,000 jobs in December as annual wage growth picked up.

Though it’s good news the US labor market has defied odds in the face of inflation, such large payroll gains mean the Fed’s efforts for an economic slowdown have been unsuccessful.

January’s Consumer Price Index, which tracks changes in the costs of everyday goods and services, is set to be released on Feb. 13.

On Tuesday, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin warned about the growing fiscal deficit, which ballooned to $1.7 trillion at the end of 2023 and is a risk that several business leaders have ranked as one of their chief concerns about the economy.

“We are still engaged in a reckless level of federal spending. That is creating a very different backdrop for the economy than any point in prior history,” Griffin said at the Managed Funds Association Network conference in Miami.

In the wide-ranging interview, Griffin also attacked the perceived anti-business stance of President Biden’s administration.

“This administration seems to be very focused on regulations that reduce the access to public market capital…. or make it more expensive to run a business,” added Griffin, one of the nation’s largest hedge funds that recently revealed plans to give back $7 billion of profits to its investors after a year of double-digit returns.