By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Fed Chair Jerome Powell used the central bank's annual Wyoming research conference to promise inflation-fighting rigor when it was needed in 2022, then last year he came to the defense of the job market with promises of lower interest rates when the unemployment rate seemed on a steady rise.

What will Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signal about interest rates at this year's Jackson Hole gathering? The central-bank gathering has sometimes been a venue for marking shifts in Fed policy,

Jerome Powell has the ideal platform Friday to deliver a clear signal the Federal Reserve is about to resume cutting interest rates. But the economy isn’t giving him an equally clear signal that now is the time.