Just in time for Christmas, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell brought festive cheer to investors – and likely a few central bankers – with hints that the Fed may be ready to contemplate monetary easing in mid-2024.

It was the signal markets had been waiting for, after a year of ups and down in the data and zigzags from exuberance to despair and back. Central bankers, peering through the mists of a largely unprecedented economic situation, struggled to give clear guidance. But with the benefit