An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve shows price pressures easing gradually

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve shows price pressures easing gradually.

Latest stories

  • Powell says Fed can afford to be a little more cautious

    NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said the economy is stronger now than the central bank had expected in September when it began reducing interest rates, and appeared to signal his support for a slower pace of interest-rate cuts ahead. “The U.S. economy is in very good shape and there’s no reason for that not to continue ...the downside risks appear to be less in the labor market, growth is definitely stronger than we thought, and inflation has come in a little higher," Powell said at a New York Times event. His remarks during a wide-ranging half-hour interview that touched only lightly on monetary policy and the economy are likely his last before the Dec. 17-18 policy meeting, as the quiet period when Fed officials refrain from speaking about monetary policy ahead of a meeting starts on Saturday.

  • China can accept GDP growth of less than 5%, says People's Daily

    China is not wedded to achieving specific GDP growth rates, and a pace of less than 5% for the economy is acceptable as there is no need for the "worship of speed", state newspaper People's Daily said on Wednesday. In March, China's government set a growth target of "around 5%" for this year, but the world's second-biggest economy has struggled for momentum largely due to a prolonged property sector crisis and local government debt woes. Beijing has responded with a series of stimulus measures since late September with only modest success so far.

  • ‘High on the list of items’: Ramaswamy threat to claw back Rivian loan sparks criticism of Musk’s conflict of interest

    Vivek Ramaswamy, the incoming co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s commission to cut government spending, has set his sights on money the Biden administration is dispersing in its final days in office, including a key loan to a rival company of his commission co-chair, Elon Musk.

  • GOP’s ambitious budget plan faces internal divisions

    Republican senators warn incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) ambitious proposal to tackle President-elect Trump’s agenda faces an array of disagreements within their party over strategy and policy. Republican senators are broadly amenable to moving quickly on a budget reconciliation bill that would provide funding to complete construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, to…

  • Trump picks finance professor Faulkender for deputy Treasury secretary

    U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated University of Maryland finance professor Michael Faulkender as deputy U.S. Treasury secretary, returning him to the department where he helped implement a pandemic relief program that kept paychecks flowing to workers idled by COVID-19. Faulkender served as Treasury's assistant secretary of economic policy, where he advised then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on economic policy issues. If confirmed as deputy secretary, this role would be expanded to a broad range of other areas, including sanctions policy, financial markets regulation, tax policy and the $28 trillion Treasury debt market.

  • Top Republicans collide on strategy for Trump tax agenda

    House and Senate Republicans are clashing over how to advance President-elect Trump’s tax agenda after incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) offered a plan that would put off tax reform to first take action on border security and energy production. Thune’s plan would set up two budget reconciliation packages that would allow the Senate…

  • Why Trump and the Federal Reserve could clash in the coming years

    President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on the promise that his policies would reduce high borrowing costs and lighten the financial burden on American households. Trump could point a finger at the Federal Reserve, and in particular at its chair, Jerome Powell, whom Trump himself nominated to lead the Fed. During his first term, Trump repeatedly and publicly ridiculed the Powell Fed, complaining that it kept interest rates too high.

  • Half of firms to slash jobs and raise prices after Budget

    More than half of British businesses expect to put up prices and cut jobs to cope with the costs of Rachel Reeves’s National Insurance raid.

  • Australia’s net migration still 82,000 people short of pre-pandemic levels, study finds

    Country has shortfall over more than five years of pandemic disruption, according to ANU report, contrary to claims of record-high migration

  • PMQs live: Starmer urges women to report inappropriate behaviour amid Gregg Wallace questions

    Comes as influential report warns UK interest rates will fall by less than expected over next two years after autumn Budget

  • Republicans keep narrow US House majority as Democrats pick up last race

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will hold a slim 220-215 majority when the next Congress gets underway next month after Democrats picked up a seat in California, according to Edison Research on Wednesday. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans will control both the White House and both chambers of Congress starting next month, following a rightward shift in the country in November's election and Democrats' loss of both the White House and the Senate.

  • Two-child benefit cap to be scrapped in Scotland under Budget plans

    Finance Secretary Shona Robison also outlined record NHS and local government funding in her tax and spending plans for 2025/26.

  • Trump’s tariff plan would hit UK trade as hard as Brexit, think tank warns

    The Resolution Foundation said small firms have seen their exports to the EU fall by a third, with 20,000 companies having stopped exporting to the continent altogether since Brexit

  • Will the Fed cut rates in 2025? 2 things to consider.

    With a 25 basis point cut expected at the Federal Reserve's December meeting, markets weigh what's to come from the central bank in the new year following Fed Chair Jerome Powell saying the Fed can afford to be cautious cutting rates going forward. New York Times Federal Reserve and economy reporter Jeanna Smialek, who is also the author of "Limitless: The Federal Reserve Takes on a New Age of Crisis," joins Morning Brief with Brad Smith and Madison Mills to talk about the outlook for the Fed in 2025, with President-elect Donald Trump set to start his second term in the White House. "The question is really about the new year. I think it's about what happens in 2025," Smialek says. She notes that recent signals that the US economy is fairing better than initially expected, "creates this question mark over just how much the fed is going to be able to cut next year and just how quickly they're going to do it." Smialek says there are "two buckets" of issues to consider when assessing the Fed's rate easing cycle in 2025. "The first is just what is the economy going to look like independent of any policy coming out of the White House," she notes, highlighting positive signs coming out of the US economy despite "inflation that looks a little bit stickier," which she says could translate to "slower rate cuts next year." "Then there's the second bucket, which is whatever comes out of the Trump White House and the Fed is saying at this point that it's just too early to tell," she says as economists debate if Trump's proposed tariffs would be inflationary. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here. This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.

  • Five months of Keir Starmer in numbers, from record tax rises to sinking ratings

    As PM announces a new set of targets for his government today, how has he fared in his first five months in the job? Our data correspondent reports.

  • Bernard Arnault Was Elected to a Prestigious French Academy

    The luxury titan is now part of the Institut de France, whose lifetime members are known as Immortals.

  • Fed's Musalem expects more rate cuts, keeping options open on December meeting

    St. Louis Federal Reserve President Alberto Musalem said on Wednesday he expects the U.S. central bank will be able to continue to cut interest rates but isn't ready to say what he thinks should happen at its policy meeting later this month. With inflation likely to continue to ebb to the Fed's 2% target over time, "additional easing of moderately restrictive policy toward neutral will be appropriate over time," Musalem said at a Bloomberg monetary policy conference. Financial markets expect the Fed to cut its policy rate by a quarter of a percentage point from the current 4.50%-4.75% range at its Dec. 17-18 meeting, as it seeks to adjust the stance of policy to easing inflation and a better-balanced labor market.

  • 'We had to stop this': Woman who grabbed South Korean soldier's gun speaks to BBC

    Ahn Gwi-ryeong faced off with armed soldiers who were sent to stop lawmakers from entering parliament in Seoul.

  • Enormous 19.6ft python found in the middle of flooded road in Thailand

    On December 1, in Pattani, Thailand, a 19.6ft python was spotted floating weakly on a flooded road after heavy rains, surprising local residents.

  • Who is President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee, the political couple mired in scandal?

    The President and his wife have been at the centre of a series of scandals prior to last night’s attempted coup