U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that crosscurrents such as trade tensions and concerns about global growth have been weighing on U.S. economic activity and outlook.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at a news conference after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington, DC, on June 19, 2019. [File photo: VCG/Nicholas Kamm]

In his prepared remarks to lawmakers at the House Committee on Financial Services, where he is scheduled to testify on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report, Powell also said many participants of the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee "saw that the case for a somewhat more accommodative monetary policy had strengthened."