CNBC Daily Open: Investors expected the Fed to hold rates — it was Powell's comments that drew interest

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Taken from CNBC’s Daily Open, our international markets newsletter — Subscribe today

As expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve left its key interest rate steady in a range between 3.5%-3.75%.

But what investors were really keeping their eyes peeled for were signs of political fingerprints on the independent central bank.

On his attendance of the legal case against Fed Governor Lisa Cook — which will decide if U.S. President Donald Trump can fire her — Chair Jerome Powell said, “That case is perhaps the most important legal case in the Fed’s 113-year history. ... it might be hard to explain why I didn’t attend.”