The very data that caused President Donald Trump to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he did not like the July employment report, calling it "rigged," is being taken as serious evidence by Federal Reserve officials of a slowing economy and as a justification for the interest rate cuts Trump wants. "The latest employment report confirmed some of the signs of fragility and reduced dynamism in the labor market," Fed Governor Michelle Bowman, a Trump appointee, said in a Saturday speech that elaborated on how the latest jobs numbers and revisions to prior months' data...
Core consumer prices in the US, which exclude food and energy, rose by 0.3% from the previous month in July of 2025, picking up from the 0.2% increase in the previous month for the sharpest increase since January. The result was in line with the median consensus from markets. Prices accelerated for transportation services (0.8% vs 0.2% in June), medical care services (0.8% vs 0.6%), and rebounded sharply for new vehicles (0.5% vs -0.7%). Source: Trading Economics
U.S. trade officials plan to meet with their Chinese counterparts within the next two or three months to discuss the future of economic relations between the two countries, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday. The announcement comes a day after the Trump administration extended a 90-day pause on implementing higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. Speaking in an interview on Fox Business Network's "Kudlow," Bessent indicated that any potential reduction in tariffs on China would require substantial progress on addressing fentanyl flows. "The U.S. will need to see months, if not...