Why it matters: Despite consistent criticism by Trump, who has exhorted the Fed to stop raising interest rates — and, lately, to cut them — Powell has largely deflected questions about the series of attacks from the White House. In his speech, Powell said the Fed was "grappling with" whether or not the economic uncertainty in recent weeks will "call for additional policy accommodations," i.e. a lowering of interest rates.

The backdrop: Powell's comments come days after the Fed's notable shift from keeping monetary policy on hold — that is, not raising interest rates — to suggesting it might approve a rate cut as soon as next month, citing the possibility of a more intense U.S.-China trade war as a factor stoking economic uncertainty.

• Inflation has been below the Fed's 2% target, strengthening the case for a potential rate cut. Powell, who last month played down low inflation as "transitory," said Tuesday that the inflation undershoot "looks like it may be more persistent than we had hoped."
• Powell also acknowledged the risk involved in cutting rates imminently, since such a move would leave the Fed with less flexibility in a severe economic downturn.
• The same problem haunts other central banks around the world, including the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank.

In the meantime, the U.S. stock market is trading near record highs on the prospects of a rate cut as soon as the Fed's next meeting in July.

• "Sometimes financial markets can be quite prescient about evolving risks," Powell said. "Other times they can be excessively optimistic" and can "ignore risks."
• Powell said the Fed has to use some "judgement" in looking at "financial market developments over time to decide what to react to."

What they're saying: "Until about six months ago, the Federal Reserve was confidently embarked on a path of monetary policy normalization," or moving interest rates back to pre-crisis levels, notes Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz. By contrast, the Fed has now turned its focus to "sustaining the economic expansion," which Powell has acknowledged several times in recent weeks.

Bottom line: Facing pressure from markets and Trump, it's unclear whether the Fed thinks that those two things can happen at the same time.

• The Fed "may have normalized all it could for this cycle," Tracie McMillion, head of Global Asset Allocation at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, tells Axios. "If we get a significant amount of good news over the next few months, then the Fed may be able to resume its path to normalization."

Go deeper:

• What to make of the Fed
• The end of Fed predictability
• Report: White House considered "legality of demoting" Fed Chair

The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — FinCEN — tracks banks that serve what it calls MRBs (marijuana-related businesses).

• Banks that do serve pot businesses — after completing due diligence to make sure a company isn't involved in illicit activity —must keep tabs on every single transaction and report customer activity to regulators.
• Banks pass on the cost of all that paperwork — in theory, charging these customers whatever they want.
• If a regulator says the bank isn't being thorough enough, fines can be levied.
• Even so, there are still few options for marijuana companies that need a place to store cash, pay bills and so forth.

What we're hearing: "A cannabis operator can count on [paying] several thousand dollars a month in banking fees. It'd probably be in the hundreds of dollars for [a non-cannabis] company," Chris Call, CEO of North Bay Credit Union, which offers banking services for marijuana companies, tells Axios.

What to watch: The SAFE Banking Act — a bill in Congress that would shield banks from federal penalties for serving marijuana business customers — is gaining momentum. But in the meantime, states are trying to take matters into their own hands.

• Nevada is testing a Venmo-like system that would allow marijuana businesses to transfer money.
• California lawmakers are mulling a bill that would create state-sponsored, marijuana-friendly banks.

Higher taxes: Not only do marijuana companies pay higher banking fees, the illegality of marijuana means they pay more in federal taxes.

• One tax regulation prevents most cannabis companies from deducting the business expenses that non-marijuana companies can.
• One study found that the effective tax rate of MRBs was more than double the rate paid by “similarly situated” non-marijuana businesses.

Bonus: Cannabis companies don’t get a charitable deduction for any gifts they make. And charities are wary about accepting money from weed-affiliated businesses.

Go deeper:

• Special report: Weed, Inc.
• Budding branding
• Beauty giants cash in on wearable weed

The big picture: With investors of all sizes pressing their agendas on public corporations — from hedge funds seeking to block mergers to issue-oriented shareholders pursuing social and environmental agendas — top executives have started negotiating upfront, aiming to reduce the number of loud confrontations and proxy battles.

American-style activism has caught on abroad and is rising in countries like the U.K. and Japan. But in the U.S., where investors first started building up stakes in companies and picking high-profile fights, the number of public showdowns is way down this year, despite some splashy exceptions.

• Not since 2015 have so few U.S. companies faced public demands from activists in the during this spring’s big proxy season, which runs through the end of June, according to research firm Activist Insight.
• Activism outside of the U.S., meanwhile, is spiking. The U.K. had its busiest first-quarter in recent years while Japanese companies saw a record 30 campaigns last year, per CNBC.

Between the lines: American companies have grown more experienced and sophisticated about managing shareholder activism, aided by armies of lawyers, consultants and bankers who have built up specialized practices in this field.

In their dealings with hedge funds, U.S. companies are often settling before a disagreement escalates to an all-out proxy fight. In the first quarter, all of the corporate board seats gained by hedge funds were won via settlements, according to Lazard.

• Bed, Bath & Beyond, under pressure, gave 4 board seats to a trio of activist hedge funds and booted its CEO.
• PG&E, the utility, settled with hedge funds that wanted to switch up its board and select a new CEO.
• Campbell Soup settled with activist hedge funder Dan Loeb just days before a fight was put to a shareholder vote, giving him some board seats and input on choosing the next CEO.
• "Proxy fights are very expensive and distracting for management efforts," Paula Loop, head of PwC's Governance Insights Center, tells Axios. “It's a lot less costly to settle, in most cases.”

Unlike in the past, there's a lot of U.S. shareholder activism that Wall Street and Main Street never hear about.

• Behind-the-scenes negotiations have led to fewer ESG proposals — environmental, social, governance— making it onto the ballots at companies’ annual shareholder meetings this spring.
• More proposals are being withdrawn, a recent trend that's expected to continue this year, according to ISS, a proxy advisory firm. This typically happens when a company and a shareholder group reach a truce behind closed doors.
• "Companies are more willing to discuss, more willing to listen, and it de-escalates the situation," Jason Day, a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie who advises public companies on stockholder activism, tells Axios. “Or the company has a nice conversation, and it doesn't move to the public sphere."

The other side: This trend by no means spells the end of big, public battles.

• Bill Ackman, who has a big stake in United Technologies, came out against the company’s tie-up with Raytheon.
• Carl Icahn has sued Occidental Petroleum, after opposing its plan to purchase Anadarko.
• Dan Loeb, who also opposes the United Technologies/Raytheon deal, is pushing Sony to sell its semiconductor business.

There’s been lots of headline-grabbing activity on the ESG front, primarily among issue-oriented shareholders. Asset managers and proxy advisors who recommend how shareholders should vote —who typically don't stir up controversy during proxy season, but whose weight can sway management — have lately been starting to align themselves with ESG issues.

• HSBC Global Asset Management is a part of a group asking companies like ExxonMobil and Amazon for more transparency about the environmental impact of their operations.
• Glass Lewis, the proxy advisory firm, came out this year to recommend that shareholders vote against nominating committee chairs on boards without a single female director.

Go deeper: The cannibal of Sears