The first night of the Republican National Convention kept its official focus on the economy Monday even after Saturday's shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania in which former President Donald Trump was injured. Speakers argued that Trump would fix inflation and bring back prosperity simply by returning to the White House as president. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin lamented, Tonight, America, the land of opportunity, just doesn't feel like that anymore. But Trump has released few hard numbers and no real policy language or legislative blueprints, and most of the speakers Monday didn't get into details either. Instead, his campaign is betting that voters care more about attitude than policy specifics. Trump says he wants tariffs on trade partners and no taxes on tips. He would like to knock the corporate tax rate down a tick. The Republican platform also promises to defeat inflation and quickly bring down all prices, in addition to pumping out more oil, natural gas and coal. The ..
The American economy expanded at a 1.4 per cent annual pace from January through March, the slowest quarterly growth since spring 2022, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade from its previous estimate. Consumer spending grew just 1.5 per cent, down from an initial estimate of 2 per cent in a sign that high interest rates may be taking a toll on the economy. The Commerce Department had previously estimated that the gross domestic product the economy's total output of goods and services advanced at a 1.3 per cent rate last quarter. The first quarter's GDP growth marked a sharp pullback from a strong 3.4 per cent pace during the final three months of 2023. Still, Thursday's report showed that the January-March slowdown was caused mainly by two factors a surge in imports and a drop in business inventories that can bounce around from quarter to quarter and don't necessarily reflect the underlying health of the economy. Imports shaved 0.82 percentage point off first-quarter
However, for 2025, Fitch expects world growth to edge down to 2.4 per cent as US growth slows to a below-trend rate of 1.5 per cent and growth in the Eurozone picks up to 1.5 per cent
The Labour Department's closely watched employment report on Friday is also expected to show the unemployment rate remained below 4 per cent for the 28th straight month
Spot gold was up 0.2% at $2,331.84 per ounce as of 09:49 a.m. ET (1349 GMT), after posting a 2% gain last month. Prices hit an all-time high of $2,449.89 on May 20
Browning elaborates on the implications of US growth for financial markets
The labor market is steadily rebalancing in the wake of 525 basis points worth of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve since March 2022 to slow demand in the overall economy
During this period, US monthly inflation data cooled for the first time in six months, while retail sales stagnated in April, boosting odds for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week as layoffs remained historically low despite the Federal Reserve's efforts to loosen the labor market. Jobless claims for the week ending May 18 fell by 8,000 to 215,000, down from 223,000 the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week average of claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, rose a modest 1,750 to 219,750. Weekly unemployment claims are considered a proxy for the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week and a sign of where the job market is headed. They have remained at historically low levels since millions of jobs were lost when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in the spring of 2020. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times beginning in March of 2022 in a bid to stifle the four-decade high inflation that took hold after the economy rebounded from the COVID-19 recession of 2020. The Fed's intention was to loosen the labor market an
The labor market is steadily rebalancing in the wake of 525 basis points worth of rate hikes from the U.S. central bank since March 2022 to cool demand in the overall economy
The electric carmaker said last month it would lay off 6,020 people in California and Texas, as part of the headcount cuts
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed slightly and hit its highest since early 2023
For Mike Johnson it was effectively a Day 1 priority. It's well past time, the newly elected House speaker said in October, to establish a bipartisan commission to tackle the federal government's growing USD 34.6 trillion in debt. "The consequences if we don't act now are unbearable, he said, echoing warnings from his predecessor and other House Republicans. More than six months later, the proposal appears all but dead, extinguished by vocal opposition from both the right and the left. The collapse underscores an unyielding dynamic in Washington, with lawmakers in both parties loath to consider the unpopular tradeoffs that would be necessary to stem the nation's swelling tide of red ink particularly in an election year. Facing the reality that any fiscal commission would almost certainly suggest that Americans pay more or get less from their government, lawmakers have time and again done what they do so well: punt the problem to the next Congress. And they seem poised to do so ..
The Fed last week left its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged in the current 5.25%-5.50% range, where it has been since July
Inflation has been largely stalled for the first three months of the year at a rate, roughly 2.7%, that policymakers regard as still too far above their target to declare the job finished
The benchmark 10-year yield was at 7.1620% as of 10:00 a.m. IST, following its previous close of 7.1598%
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says he's hopeful the Federal Reserve can bring down inflation without causing a recession but wouldn't rule out more troubling possibilities, such as stagflation. In an interview with The Associated Press at a Chase branch opening in The Bronx, Dimon said he remained cautious about the US economy and said inflation may be stickier for longer and that stagflation is on the list of possible things that could happen to the US economy. You should be worried about (the possibility of stagflation), Dimon said. Dimon did emphasise that he's still hopeful for the US economy to experience a soft landing, where growth slows but the economy avoids a recession even if inflation remains a little high, but he's not certain that is the most likely outcome. I'm just a little more dubious than others that a (soft landing) is a given, he said. The Fed rapidly raised interest rates in 2022 and 2023 after inflation reached the highest level in four decades. Fed officia
The economy grew at a 3.4% rate in the fourth quarter. The first quarter growth's pace was below what U.S. central bank officials regard as the non-inflationary growth rate of 1.8%
Manufacturing, which accounts for three-fourths of total industrial production, is showing signs of turning a corner after more than a year of sluggish activity, helped by resilient consumer demand
Recent data have not been helpful, with inflation stalled well above the US central bank's 2% target for the first quarter of the year