*POWELL SAYS VIRUS RAISES CONCERNS OF LONG-TERM ECONOMIC HARM
*POWELL: OUTLOOK HIGHLY UNCERTAIN AND DOWNSIDE RISKS SIGNIFICANT
*POWELL: MORE FISCAL AID MAY BE WORTH COST TO LIMIT LASTING HARM
His full comments are at the bottom of this post:

In what is this week's most closely watched event, at 9am Fed Chair Powell will speak live at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (via webcast of course). The description of the event says he'll make "remarks on current economic issues", which will be followed by a discussion with the Peterson Institute's president. The market expectation is that he'll discuss future policy options including negative rates in light of last week's unprecedented move which saw fed funds futures price in negative rates in late 2020 and early 2021 which various Fed presidents have been very reluctant to endorse of late, amid fears sub-zero rates would hurt bank profits and crush money markets which now hold a record $4.8 trillion, ultimately hurting rather than helping the economy.

AS DB's Jim Reid writes, one President that was only too happy to endorse a negative rate policy was Mr Trump who said in a tweet yesterday that "As long as other countries are receiving the benefits of Negative Rates, the USA should also accept the "GIFT". Big numbers!" That came as we heard from a number of Fed speakers, who all warned of the potential for massive economic damage. St. Louis Fed President Bullard said that "You will get business failures on a grand scale and you will be taking risks that you would go into depression" if the shutdowns last as long as 90 or 120 days. Meanwhile, Dallas Fed President Kaplan also said in a CNN interview that "If we get to a peak unemployment rate, which we think will be around 20%, and we end the year around a 10% unemployment rate, there may well need to be more fiscal stimulus in order to boost economic growth".