Outside of a U.S. President bending norms, the Fed also faces challenges in achieving its economic objectives. Inflation remains above its 2% target: Its preferred measure is at 2.4%, though core prices — considered a better gauge of where inflation is headed — rose 2.8% in November from a year ago.

On a day in which all eyes were on the Federal Reserve’s first policy update of the new year, the Bank of Canada was also drawing a fair amount of attention.