3+ day, 16+ hour ago   (307+ words) Federal Reserve officials were already heading into next week’s meeting divided over whether inflation had cooled enough to leave rates alone. Thursday’s producer-price report made that decision harder: wholesale prices rose 5.4% from a year earlier in August, and traders pushed…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (216+ words) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shocked the bond market on Aug. 19 by doubling planned purchases of long-dated government debt, briefly pushing the 30-year Treasury yield sharply lower. Less than two weeks later, the 30-year yield is back above 5.28%, essentially where it…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (500+ words) Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr put a straightforward condition on the Fed’s September decision Tuesday: if inflation isn’t cooling fast enough, policymakers should raise interest rates. “If inflation appears not to be moderating sufficiently, then I think we should act…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago   (344+ words) The tension is unusually personal for a central-bank communications dispute. Warsh wants investors to rely less on Fed guidance and more on economic data, but economists and traders aren't merely asking him to predict the next interest-rate decision. They want…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago   (242+ words) The economy is still growing, consumers are still spending and both unemployment and layoffs remain low. Yet Americans feel worse about the economy than they did during the pandemic, and one number helps explain the disconnect: inflation has now outpaced…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago   (345+ words) Treasury says the larger buybacks are intended to improve liquidity in the 10-to-30-year portion of the market, where investors have been offering unusually large amounts of older securities back to the government. The expanded operations begin Sept. 9 and continue…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (217+ words) The numbers aren't subtle. Since 1970, the S&P 500 has returned an average of just 0.58% during midterm years, compared with 9.25% across all years, according to Bank of America. Stocks finished those midterm years higher only 57% of the time, versus 75% for years…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (450+ words) The U.S. national debt is closing in on $40 trillion, but Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett isn't treating the milestone as another abstract warning about Washington's finances. His message is aimed directly at markets: with governments borrowing heavily and bond yields…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (263+ words) That initially gave the Fed room to wait. Three policymakers preferred a quarter-point increase in July, but the committee held steady while it tried to determine whether renewed inflation pressure would remain concentrated around energy and other supply shocks or…...