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Federal Reserve

March

This week shapes as the big one for Donald Trump and his tariff extravaganza.

The market playbooks are being rewritten after just three months

We’re in uncharted waters and people are listening to the captain to differing degrees, but there is a truckload of money to be made somewhere.

Donald Trump is set to unleash another wave of tariffs in early April.

US consumer spending edges higher, key inflation metric rises

The data represent a double whammy for the economy before the brunt of tariffs from President Donald Trump.

US President Donald Trump has been fortunate to start with an obedient Congress.

Trump’s attack on the judiciary: ‘speed and intent is remarkable’

The US president is testing constitutional limits and challenging the courts to stop him. Who will blink first?

Trump 2.0 is different – and it could go two ways

Donald Trump’s second coming involves a far more staunch and legacy-focused US president who will deliver more radical change than markets expect.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell  highlighted “unusually elevated” uncertainty.

Investors cheer as traders dial up Fed rate cut bets

Equities rallied around the world as bond markets priced in the possibility of two rate cuts from US Federal Reserve this year and in Australia.

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The sharemarket rose on Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street.

ASX rises 1pc as banks, tech rally; Nanosonics soars 14pc

ASX’s best day in six weeks, job numbers boost rate cut hopes; copper hits record; NAB downgraded; Nanosonics rallies; Fed sees “transitory” tariff impact.

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Employment falls; Single word boosts shares; Apple pulls iPhone ad

Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.

US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell says tariff inflation may be transitory.

This single word just sparked a sharemarket pop

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell has kept rates on hold, citing extreme uncertainty. But his use of one particular word to describe tariff-related inflation shocked investors.

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference after holding rates steady.

Fed cuts growth forecast on Trump tariff uncertainty

Federal Reserve policymakers also held rates steady, though they indicated borrowing costs would drop by 50 basis points by the end of the year.

APRA chairman John Lonsdale at The Australian Financial Review Banking Summit.

APRA holds firm against deregulation push

The banking regulator is resisting the US push for greater deregulation to boost growth. But can that last given the international upheaval under way?

Wall Street rallied strongly last week but pundits are yet to call the bottom of the market just yet.

ASX to surge as investors pile back into battered Wall Street stocks

Although the market is set to stage a comeback after weeks of heavy selling, traders remain uneasy about the “waterfall risk”. Gold hits $US3000 on the anxiety.

A doctor works at a Johns Hopkins outpatient centre in Baltimore.

Johns Hopkins to cut more than 2000 workers in Trump era

The university, a leader in scientific research, has been hard hit by the Trump administration’s cuts, which will slash at least $US800 million from its budget.

The market tumult created by Donald Trump’s tariff plans has created turmoil for the 60/40 investment strategy.

Donald Trump delivers the 60/40 strategy’s biggest test in decades

For years, balancing stocks with bonds was a comforting failsafe for investors. The tumult gripping Wall Street has created questions about its effectiveness.

Donald Trump’s erratic approach to tariffs suggests the president is prepared to risk both the US and global economy to make his ideological point.

Sticky inflation data is a reminder of market’s stagflationary fear

The latest US CPI data did nothing to cool the market’s fears that we could be headed into a perfect storm of low economic growth and elevated inflation.

President Donald Trump has unleashed a barrage of tariffs and plans to impose more on April 2.

US inflation eases, as economists await impact from Trump’s tariffs

Analysts anticipate that the president’s escalating trade wars will drive up prices on a range of goods from food to clothing in the coming months.

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Scott Bessent: “The Trump call on the upside is, if we have good policies, then the markets will go up.”

In Trump’s inflationary American dream, cheap does not mean good

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backs the president’s trade war even if it worsens the cost-of-living squeeze on ordinary Americans.

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said the US economy “continues to be in a good place”.

Powell says Fed will wait for clarity on Trump policy shifts

“We are focused on separating the signal from the noise as the outlook evolves,” the Fed boss said, adding the US economy is in “a good place”.

Separate data out Friday showed the US goods-trade deficit widened unexpectedly in January to a record as imports surged ahead of Trump’s promised tariffs.

Fed’s preferred measure of underlying inflation rises 0.3pc

The latest report offers respite on the inflation front after other reports on prices have suggested progress has not only stalled but is now reversing.

February

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent dismissed speculation that the government might revalue its holdings of gold in an effort to reduce US borrowing needs, or to create a sovereign wealth fund.

Bessent says US ‘long way’ from boosting longer-term debt sales

In a wide-ranging interview, the US treasury secretary reiterates his view that the world’s second-largest economy is dangerously unbalanced.

Why the RBA will cut (but shouldn’t)

It is too soon to say “mission accomplished”. Monetary loosening should wait until inflation is substantially below forecast for a prolonged period.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/federal-reserve-1mzb