Here are the key things Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said — and didn’t say — while Americans were sleeping Thursday night

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh spoke Thursday night but avoided the kind of forward guidance markets often look for ahead of a policy meeting. With the central bank's rate-setting gathering roughly two weeks away, his remarks left expectations largely where they were — a reminder that this Fed has chosen ambiguity over signalling.

For markets, the takeaway is less about any single comment than about the absence of a steer. Rate decisions are made by the Federal Open Market Committee as a whole, and officials can and do diverge. When the chair declines to pre-commit, attention shifts to the data and to other voices on the committee, which can keep short-term rate expectations and bond yields more sensitive to each new release.

What to watch next: the economic indicators due before the meeting, any further public comments from FOMC participants, and how futures markets price the odds of a move. Those inputs, rather than a single speech, are likely to shape the run-up to the decision.