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The Federal Reserves preferred measure of inflation changed little in September, likely easing the way to a widely expected interest rate cut by the central bank next week. Prices rose 0.3% in September from August, the Commerce Department said Friday, in a report that was delayed five weeks by the government shutdown. It matched the increase recorded during the previous month. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 0.2% in September from August, the same as August, and a pace that if it continued for a year would bring inflation closer to the Feds 2% target. Compared with a year ago, overall prices rose 2.8%, up slightly from 2.7% in August. Core prices also rose 2.8% from a year earlier, a small decline from the previous months figure of 2.9%. The data indicate that core inflation was muted in September and will bolster the case for a cut to the Feds key interest rate at its next meeting Dec. 9-10. Inflation remains above the central banks 2% target, partly because of President Donald Trumps tariffs, but many Fed officials argue that weak hiring, modest economic growth, and slowing wage gains will steadily reduce price gains in the coming months. At the same time, there were some warning signs in the figures. Omair Sharif, chief economist at Inflation Insights, said that Friday’s report overall will likely reassure the Fed that core inflation is mostly cool. But he noted that a measure of services inflation in the report remains elevated and could raise concerns among some Fed policymakers, since the higher figure doesn’t stem from tariffs, but instead broader inflationary pressures. It hasnt really shown any sign of slowing down, Sharif said. That has to be concerning for them. The Fed is facing a tricky decision next week: It would typically keep rates high to fight inflation. At the same time, it is worried about weak hiring and a slowly rising unemployment rate. It hopes that reducing rates will spur more borrowing and boost the economy. Fridays report also showed that consumer spending grew, though at a slower monthly pace in September than the previous month, suggesting Americans were willing to spend despite high prices and stagnant hiring. Spending rose 0.3% in September, down from 0.5% in August. More recently, Americans appeared to step up their spending on Black Friday and the weekend after Thanksgiving, which could boost growth in this years fourth quarter. Online spending jumped 7.7% during the five days after Thanksgiving, compared to the same period last year, according to Adobe Analytics. Incomes, meanwhile, rose at a solid 0.4% in September for the second straight month. The economy is sending unusually mixed signals, as growth appears solid even as the unemployment rate has ticked up to a four-year high of 4.4%. Home sales are moribund and factories have been cutting jobs, yet a boom in investment in artificial intelligence data centers has boosted the broader economy. But on Wednesday, payroll processor ADP said that businesses shed 32,000 jobs in November, a sign that companies are starting to lay off workers. Should job cuts continue, consumers would likely rapidly dial back their shopping, weakening the economy. The government will issue its own jobs report for November on December 16, which for now is forecast to show a small gain, according to data provider FactSet. Christopher Rugaber, AP economics writer
Category:
E-Commerce
The Trump administration will be expanding its ban on travel for citizens of certain countries to more than 30, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, in the latest restriction to come since a man from Afghanistan was accused of shooting two National Guard members. The expansion would build on a travel ban already announced in June by the Republican administration, which barred travel to the U.S. for citizens from 12 countries and restricted access to the U.S. for people from seven others. In a social media post earlier this week, Noem had suggested more countries would be included. Noem, who spoke late Thursday in an interview with Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham, would not provide further details, saying President Donald Trump was considering which countries would be included. In the wake of the National Guard shooting, the administration already ratcheted up restrictions on the 19 countries included in the initial travel ban, which include Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Haiti, among others. Ingraham asked Noem whether the travel ban was expanding to 32 countries and asked which countries would be added to the 19 announced earlier this year. I won’t be specific on the number, but it’s over 30. And the president is continuing to evaluate countries, Noem said. If they don’t have a stable government there, if they don’t have a country that can sustain itself and tell us who those individuals are and help us vet them, why should we allow people from that country to come here to the United States? Noem said. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment about when an updated travel ban might go into effect and which countries would be included in it. Additions to the June travel ban are the latest in what has been a rapidly unfolding series of immigration actions since the shooting Thanksgiving week of two National Guard troops in Washington. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who emigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, has been charged with first-degree murder after one of the two victims, West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, died of wounds sustained in the Nov. 26 shooting. The second victim, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, was critically wounded. Lakanwal has pleaded not guilty. The Trump administration has argued that more vetting is needed to make sure people entering or already in the U.S. aren’t a threat. Critics say the administration is traumatizing people who’ve already gone through extensive vetting to get to the U.S. and say the new measures amount to collective punishment. Over the course of a little more than a week, the administration has halted asylum decisions, paused processing of immigration-related benefits for people in the U.S. from the 19 travel ban countries and halted visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort. On Thursday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it was reducing the time period that work permits are valid for certain applicants such as refugees and people with asylum so they have to reapply more often and go through vetting more frequently. Rebecca Santana, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
The U.S. stock market is flirting with its all-time high on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and was on track earlier in the day to squeak past its record closing level, which was set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 69 points, or 0.1%, as of 12:29 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher. If the S&P 500 finishes the day at a record, it would mark the latest time the U.S. stock market has powered past what appeared to be a debilitating set of worries. Most recently, those concerns centered on what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates, whether too many dollars are flowing into artificial-intelligence technology, and if sharp drops for cryptocurrencies would bleed over into other markets. Renewed hopes for a cut to interest rates by the Fed at its meeting next week helped stocks recover those losses, which included some of their worst days since their sell-off during April. So did a continuing parade of companies saying they’re making bigger profits than analysts had expected. Ulta Beauty helped lead the market on Friday and jumped 13.2% after the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. CEO Kecia Steelman said its customers are broadly feeling pressure, but Ulta saw growth across its categories, particularly in e-commerce. It raised its forecast for revenue over the full year. Another encouraging signal for the holiday shopping season came from Victorias Secret & Co. It delivered a milder loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and it likewise raised its forecast for sales over the full year. Its stock rallied 11.5%. Warner Bros. Discovery was also strong and rose 2.3%. Netflix said it would buy Warner Bros. for $72 billion in cash and stock following its pending split from Discovery Global. The deal for the company behind HBO Max, Casablanca and Harry Potter is not a sure thing, though. It could raise fears at the U.S. government about too much industry power residing at Netflix. Shares of Netflix initially fell more than 5% after the deal was announced, then briefly erased all of the loss before falling again, by 3.2%. Paramount Skydance, which earlier had been seen as a front-runner to buy Warner Bros., fell 7.6%. Also on the losing end of Wall Street was SoFi Technologies. The financial technology company fell 7.2% to $27.73 after saying it would add $1.5 billion worth of its stock into the market in order to raise cash. It’s selling the stock at a price of $27.50 per share. The U.S. stock market broadly has been much quieter this week, a respite following earlier weeks of sharp and scary swings. After some back and forth, the widespread expectation among traders is that the Fed will cut its main interest rate next week in hopes of shoring up the slowing U.S. job market. If it does, that would be the third cut of the year. Investors love lower interest rates because they boost prices for investments and can juice the economy. The downside is that they can worsen inflation, which is stubbornly remaining above the Feds 2% target. Economic reports released on Friday did little to change expectations for a coming cut. One said that an underlying measure of inflation that the Fed prefers to use was at 2.8% in September, exactly as economists expected. A separate report said U.S. consumers appear to be downgrading their expectations for inflation coming in the near future. They’re now forecasting 4.1% inflation for the year ahead, down from their forecast of 4.5% last month, according to the University of Michigan. That’s the lowest such reading since January, which is important because heightened expectations for inflation can create a vicious cycle that only worsens inflation. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.13% from 4.11% late Thursday. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across much of Europe and rose in Asia Friday. Germanys DAX returned 0.6%, and South Koreas Kospi jumped 1.8% for two of the worlds bigger gains. Tokyos Nikkei 225 fell 1.1% after data showed household spending in Japan fell 3.0% in October from a year earlier. It was the sharpest drop since January 2024. Japanese markets have been shaky recently after the Bank of Japan hinted that hikes to interest rates may be coming. By Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Writer Teresa Cerojano contributed.
Category:
E-Commerce
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