According to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the US Federal Reserve must take rapid countermeasures in the fight against skyrocketing inflation.

If necessary, it could even resort to more aggressive rate hikes than usual, Powell said Monday in a speech for an Association for Business Economics (NABE) event.

"The job market is very strong and inflation is way too high," he said.

“There is an obvious need to act swiftly to bring monetary policy stance back to more neutral levels.” And then move to more hawkish levels if needed to restore stable prices.

"If we decide it's appropriate to move more aggressively by raising interest rates by more than 25 basis points in one or more meetings, we will do so," Powell said.

The central bank completed the turnaround in interest rates last week and raised the key monetary policy rate by a quarter of a point to the new range of 0.25 to 0.50 percent.

It was the first rate hike in three years.

According to the head of the Fed, the US economy is strong enough to withstand a series of further interest rate hikes, despite the consequences of the Ukraine war.

Powell reiterated on Monday that the central bank could start trimming its balance sheet, which has been blown up massively by bond purchases, in May.

US monetary authorities expect the Fed's key interest rate to be around 2.8 percent by the end of next year.

Most Fed policymakers believe the neutral interest rate, which neither boosts nor slows economic growth, is somewhere between 2.25 percent and 2.5 percent.

Mixed mood on the financial markets

The Fed chief's speech on Monday weighed on the mood of American investors.

The yield on ten-year American government bonds temporarily rose to 2.32 percent.

The Dow Jones fell 0.6 percent to 34,553 points.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell by 0.4 percent to 13,838 points after heavier losses in the meantime.

Investors on the European stock exchanges showed no fear of stronger monetary policy measures on Tuesday morning.

Dax and Euro Stoxx 50 were each around 1 percent up at 14,478 and 3917 points.

The broader FAZ index gained around 0.9 percent to 2495 points in early trading.

The euro fell below $1.10 overnight, but recovered again in the morning.

Gold prices fell 0.6 percent.

A troy ounce cost 1924 dollars or 1748 euros.

Oil with large rashes

Oil prices initially rose on Monday after reports that the European Union was moving closer to an import ban on Russian energy sources.

Before the start of trading on European stock exchanges, the price of Brent crude oil was trending towards $120, but fell back to $114.55 by mid-morning.

Most of the Asian stock exchanges rose again on Tuesday.

They were not impressed by the moderate losses on Wall Street.

In Tokyo, prices rose after the holiday break on Monday.

The leading index Nikkei 225 gained 1.48 percent to 27,224 points.

After initial losses, the Hang Seng on the Hong Kong stock exchange recently rose by a good 3 percent to 21,900 points.

In China, the CSI 300 index with the 300 most important companies from mainland China was almost unchanged at 4255 points.