A mix of clouds and sun this morning followed by increasing clouds with showers developing this afternoon. High around 65F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%..
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is sticking to his position that the central bank will keep its key rate on hold while it waits to see how President Donald Trump's tariffs effect the economy, defying the steady stream of criticism from the White House, which wants lower borrowing costs. Powell repeated his view Tuesday that U.S. inflation is likely to pick up later this summer, though he acknowledged that the timing and magnitude of any price increase from the duties is uncertain. But he said the Fed will stay on hold while it evaluates how the economy evolves.
The Federal Reserve will continue to wait and see how the economy evolves before deciding whether to reduce its key interest rate, Chair Jerome Powell says, a stance directly at odds with President Donald Trump's calls for immediate cuts. Powell said Tuesday that the economy is in a good position and that the Fed needs to learn more before adjusting rates. Powell is facing two days of what could be tough grilling on Capitol Hill, as Trump has repeatedly urged the Fed to reduce borrowing costs.
After Federal Reserve officials meet this week, a statement they will issue may suggest that they've seen meaningful progress on inflation this year — a prelude to eventual interest rate cuts. Yet it's hard to say, because the officials themselves may not know for sure until they begin their meeting. That's because the government's latest snapshot of U.S. inflation will be released Wednesday morning, just before the Fed begins the second day of its policy discussions. At a news conference, though, Chair Jerome Powell will likely reiterate that Fed officials need further confidence that inflation is returning to 2% before they would consider rate cuts.
They are called zombies, companies so laden with debt that they are just stumbling by on the brink of survival, barely able to pay even the interest on their loans and often just a bad business hit away from dying off for good. An Associated Press analysis found their numbers have soared to 7,000 publicly traded companies around the world, including 2,000 in the United States alone, whiplashed by years of piling up cheap debt followed by stubborn inflation that has pushed borrowing costs to decade highs. And now many could be facing their day of reckoning, with due dates on hundreds of billions of dollars of loans.
