Tag Archives: Fed

(Bloomberg) — U.S. stock-index futures fell and Treasuries climbed amid concern the economic recovery from the pandemic is faltering and investor nervousness in the run-up to the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole symposium in late August. September contracts on the S&P 500 Index declined 0.3% after the underlying gauge notched up another record high on Friday. Ten-year U.S. yields slid three basis points and the dollar rose. Chinese stocks gave up gains as the country’s retail sales and… Source link

A better-than-expected jobs report for July shows the economy may soon be ready to run with reduced support from the Federal Reserve. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday morning showed 943,000 non-farm payroll gains last month, with the unemployment rate falling to 5.4%. The economy continues to inch closer to pre-pandemic shape. In the depths of the economic shutdown, employment levels dropped by as much as 22.4 million. As of July 2021, the economy appeared to… Source link

Stock futures searched for direction Wednesday evening amid a mixed batch of corporate earnings results and a Federal Reserve decision that signaled the central bank was still looking for the U.S. economy to recover further before adjusting its monetary policies. Contracts on the S&P 500 edged slightly lower. The index ended the regular session in the red but hovered less than 0.5% below its recent all-time closing high. Contracts on the Dow rose, while those on the Nasdaq dipped. Shares of… Source link

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates at near-zero, but hinted that the U.S. economic recovery is getting closer to a place where it may not need as much monetary support. The Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rate in the range of 0% to 0.25%, but provided an update on its December 2020 commitment to purchasing at least $120 billion a month in U.S. Treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities until the recovery looked like it was making… Source link

Stock futures added to losses in late trading on Tuesday, with investors digesting a slew of Big Tech earnings results and looking ahead to another set of reports on Wednesday. A monetary policy statement from the Federal Reserve is also slated for release. Contracts on the S&P 500 dipped about 0.25% at the start of the overnight session. The index, as well as the Dow and Nasdaq, pulled back from record levels during the regular trading day.  Shares of Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) fell… Source link

The Federal Reserve has signaled that it will slow its asset purchases as the U.S. economy continues to recover. But the Fed has not offered any clues as to when it will begin “tapering” its so-called quantitative easing program, which is currently absorbing about $80 billion in U.S Treasuries and about $40 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities each month. The Federal Open Market Committee will meet Tuesday and Wednesday to check in on its monetary policy stance, which has been Source link

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress this week that he would like to see a corner of digital currencies more tightly regulated. “If [stablecoins] are going to be a significant part of the payments universe — which we don’t think crypto assets will be, but stablecoins might be — then we need an appropriate regulatory framework, which frankly we don’t have,” Powell told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. To get around the stigma of cryptocurrencies being… Source link

The Federal Reserve managed to avoid turning to negative interest rates through the pandemic-induced recession of 2020. But if the economy faces another downturn, will the central bank be backed into short-term borrowing rates below zero? In a UBS survey of almost 30 central banks around the world, 21% of respondents said they could see the Fed turning to negative interest rates if needed. The concern: With U.S. short-term rates yet again backed up at near-zero, a Fed that may be slower to… Source link

Unlike crypto critics who attack bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for being too volatile, the Federal Reserve is increasingly sounding the alarm over investigating the coins that set out to be far more boring: stablecoins. As their name suggests, stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that set out to remain stable over their lifetimes and try to maintain a value as close to $1 (or other base currencies) as possible. Tether, the largest stablecoin in the world with a market cap of more than $60… Source link

Pat Toomey (R-PA) speaks during a news conference to introduce the Republican infrastructure plan, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., April 22, 2021. REUTERS/Erin Scott A leading GOP senator is threatening to draft “transparency and accountability” laws directed at the nation’s independent central bank after accusing four of the Federal Reserve’s regional banks of dodging Congressional requests for documents. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the top ranking Republican of the Senate… Source link