Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell dashed investors’ hopes for a quick pivot away from restrictive monetary policy, saying during a press conference on Nov. 2 that it’s “very premature” for market participants to be thinking about the central bank hitting pause on rate hikes amid the risk that expectations of higher inflation become entrenched. In […]
As the Federal Reserve keeps raising interest rates in its attempt to bring down inflation, it’s running the risk of triggering a considerable economic slowdown, according to Invesco’s chief global market strategist Kristina Hooper. “When you are raising rates in 75-basis-point increments and you’re not giving any time for it to process through and make […]
The cost-of-living crunch that’s frustrating American households is also putting the squeeze on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which on Friday announced plans to raise prices to “offset the rise in inflation.” The agency said in an Oct. 7 statement that it has proposed a range of price hikes, including for stamps and raising fees […]
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a five-month low last week, but stock markets reacted in line with a “good news is bad news” paradigm and resumed their sharp selloff as the strong labor market data suggests the Federal Reserve is likely to stay the course on hiking rates […]
The Federal Reserve raised the benchmark federal funds rate by 75 basis points to a new target range of 3 to 3.25 percent on Wednesday, matching market expectations. This is the third consecutive three-quarter point rate hike, as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) lifted interest rates to their highest levels since 2008. Markets had […]
Soaring inflation expected to climb to over 13 percent has prompted the UK’s central bank to deliver the biggest interest rate hike in 27 years even as officials warned Great Britain is heading into a recession. The Bank of England (BOE) announced on Aug. 4 that its rate-setting body, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), voted […]
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 0.75 percentage point on July 27 during the July Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting. This is in line with market expectations and similar to the historic move the central bank made in June. The FOMC’s three-quarter-point boost lifted the benchmark fed funds rate to the range […]
Inflation in the 19 European nations that share the euro currency surged to a record high in June, official data shows, as pressure builds on monetary authorities to deliver the first rate hike in 11 years to cool soaring prices. Eurostat, the E.U.’s statistical agency, said on July 1 (pdf) that the annual pace of […]
A key inflation gauge heavily relied on by the Federal Reserve when setting interest rates inched down in May but remained elevated near multi-decade highs at a level more than twice the central bank’s inflation target, suggesting the Fed’s fight to relieve price pressures will be drawn out. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the so-called […]
Investors have sharply raised their expectations that the Federal Reserve will on Wednesday deliver the biggest single interest rate hike in 28 years amid red-hot inflation and a turbulent selloff across world markets. Just last week, markets gave an 8.2 percent probability that the Fed would raise the benchmark federal funds rate by three-quarters of […]
