Bill Pulte, who heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is asking Congress to investigate Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, alleging that his recent testimony to the Senate about the central bank's plans to renovate its headquarters was "deceptive." "I am asking Congress to investigate Chairman Jerome Powell, his political bias, and his deceptive testimony in the Senate, which was enough to be removed 'for some reason,'" Pulte said Wednesday in a post on the social media platform X, alleging that Powell made inaccurate statements without providing evidence. Pulte has stepped up his...
Euro zone policymakers cut rates last month to prevent an unwarrented tightening of monetary conditions and in the face of elevated uncertainty around trade, the accounts of their June 3-5 meeting showed on Thursday. The ECB cut interest rates for the eighth time in a year last month but signalled a pause in any further easing as inflation is already back at target and erratic U.S. trade policy creates too much uncertainty. "Members underlined that the outlook for the global economy remained highly uncertain," ," the ECB said. "Elevated trade uncertainty was likely to prevail for some time...
Initial jobless claims in the US eased by 4,000 from the previous week to 233,000 on the period ending June 28th, less than market expectations of 240,000. While the figure reflected the softest increase in unemployment in six weeks, it remained firmly above averages from earlier in the year to reflect the gradual softening of the US labor market, albeit still robust in a historical standard. In turn, outstanding unemployment claims were unchanged at 1,964,000, the highest since late 2021, and above expectations of 1,960,000 to maintain the view that the unemployed are undergoing more...