|
How to watch the 2026 Oscars: Where to stream the Academy Awards this Sunday, start time, full nominations list and more YahooMoira Macdonald's 2026 Oscar predictions The Seattle TimesWhat to Watch for at the 2026 Oscars: Best Actor Race, Conan O'Brien and More The New York Times
|
|
The Federal Reserve served up a widely expected third consecutive jumbo rate hike when it concluded its regularly scheduled two-day meeting on Wednesday. Chair Jerome Powell and the rest of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the federal funds rate by 75 basis points. (A basis point equals 0.01%.)
SEE MORE 16 Dividend Kings for Decades of Dividend Growth
Although the move matched consensus expectations, a significant portion of the bond market - and plenty of traders and tacticians, for that matter - were bracing for a whopping 100 bp rate hike. Uncertainty over just how hawkish the Fed would reveal itself to be has cast a pall on equities over the preceding weeks, and so a rate hike of "only" three-quarters of a percentage point was actually met with some relief. Stocks sold off sharply when the Fed released its statement at 2 p.m. Eastern, but then drifted back into positive territory during Powell's press conference, which began a half-hour later.
Ultimately, however, the major indexes finished in the red. That's because the Fed's bottom line is that inflation is by no means under control. And while there might be ample anecdotal and emotional evidence pointing to the contrary, the economy is simply running too hot. An imbalance in supply and demand in the labor market and related strong real wage growth, snarled supply chains and a rising dollar are just some of the factors confounding monetary policymakers - not to mention corporate revenues and profit margins.
As we've
|
|
