Jerome Powell, a Potential Winner from the Trade Reprieve

Jerome Powell, a Potential Winner from the Trade Reprieve

Vindication? In the span of 24 hours, the “buy America” trade is back on and the odds of a U.S. recession have dipped. And pressure on the Fed to cut interest rates has abated despite the uncertainty surrounding Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index report. That has made Jay Powell one of …

Read more

The Fed Could Be on Hold Until September, Economists Say

The Fed Could Be on Hold Until September, Economists Say

More than 20 times during a roughly 45 minute news conference on Wednesday, Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, referenced the idea of waiting to see how President Trump’s policies would ripple through the economy before taking any action on interest rates. Mr. Powell, who spoke after …

Read more

What to Watch at the Federal Reserve’s May Meeting

What to Watch at the Federal Reserve’s May Meeting

The Federal Reserve is set to extend its pause on interest rate cuts on Wednesday amid concerns that President Trump’s tariffs will unleash fresh inflationary pressures while also hurting growth, a tricky combination that could lead to painful trade-offs for the central bank. A decision to stand pat would keep …

Read more

Will Cars, Phones and Other Goods Be Too Big to Tariff?

Will Cars, Phones and Other Goods Be Too Big to Tariff?

A dovish shift Stocks are on a three-day winning streak as investors cheer cooling trade-war tensions. Another boost has come from the Fed and from Google, whose shares are up nearly 5 percent in premarket trading on decent first-quarter results. But while Washington and Beijing seem to be easing off …

Read more

Inflation Eased in March but Tariffs Raise Risk of Higher Prices

Inflation Eased in March but Tariffs Raise Risk of Higher Prices

Inflation cooled unexpectedly sharply in March, a welcome development given the uncertainties surrounding President Trump’s global tariffs, which are widely expected to stoke price pressures while also denting growth. The Consumer Price Index climbed 2.4 percent last month from a year earlier, a far slower pace than February’s 2.8 percent …

Read more

Trump’s Trade War Raises Bar for Fed Rate Cuts

Trump’s Trade War Raises Bar for Fed Rate Cuts

President Trump’s global trade war has significantly raised the bar for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, as tariffs risk worsening an already knotty inflation problem while also damaging growth. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, drove home that message in a hotly anticipated speech at the end of …

Read more