World Business Report Federal Reserve comes under pressure as interest rate decision looms
The authorities in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi have declared an emergency and a public holiday after monsoon rains paralysed the city. We hear from the local business owner.
Sony PlayStation increased the price on its console. Is it one of the consequences of the trade war?
And we look at Denmark's decision to tax cow and sheep burps for greenhouse gas reasons.
You can contact us on WhatsApp or send us a voicenote: +44 330 678 3033.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
EUROPE Jackson Hole to open under Trump's shadow
A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Kevin Buckland The Federal Reserve has the full attention of global markets, not least because the U.S. central bank's highly anticipated Jackson Hole symposium kicks off later today. Central bankers from around the world will attend, and investors are likely to hang on every word they utter. But chief among them all is Jerome Powell's speech on Friday - his last one at the annual gathering as Fed chairman. Like his predecessors, he's likely to use the opportunity to guide how his tenure is recorded in the history books, particularly considering how harshly he's been attacked by President Donald Trump for refraining from rate cuts this year. What investors are waiting to hear though are any hints for a September cut, and they ramped up bets for easing on the back of a surprisingly soft payrolls report earlier this month. The inflation picture remains hard to read though, with recent consumer price data showing little impact from Trump's aggressive tariffs, but hotter-than-expected producer prices suggesting higher costs could seep into sticker prices in coming months. Market-implied odds of a quarter-point cut on September 17 currently stand at 80%, down from 84% a day ago. That's after Fed minutes from last month's gathering suggested Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller were the only ones pushing for a rate cut at the meeting. The other reason the Fed is so much in focus is Trump's growing influence over the direction of monetary policy. The U.S. President's latest target is Fed Governor Lisa Cook, demanding her resignation over allegations made by one of his political allies about mortgages she holds in Michigan and Georgia. If Trump were to oust Cook, that would add to his picks on the Fed's board, with Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran set to replace Adriana Kugler following her surprise resignation. Bowman and Waller, of course, are both Trump appointees. And Trump could end up with four of the board's seven members supporting his demands for lower rates. Earlier this year, Trump's threats to fire Powell before his term as governor ends in May of next year unsettled investors, driving big declines in the dollar. The U.S. currency has taken the latest developments in stride, though. And Asian stocks were broadly mixed, generally adjusting to recent sharp rallies or selloffs. Japan's Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab, for example, continued to retreat from a record peak reached earlier in the week, while South Korea's KOSPI (.KS11), opens new tab bounced back strongly from its tumble to a six-week low a day earlier. Wall Street's tech selloff was largely shaken off, with for example Japan's heavyweight chip-testing equipment maker Advantest (6857.T), opens new tab by far the biggest gainer by index points on the Nikkei. Of course, other than sky-high valuations, Trump is being touted as a reason for the rout, with this administration looking into taking equity stakes in chip firms such as Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab, weeks after unprecedented revenue-sharing deals with Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab and AMD (AMD.O), opens new tab. Retailers will get some attention as well today, with Walmart (WMT.N), opens new tab releasing earnings and providing a barometer on the health of the U.S. consumer. Target (TGT.N), opens new tab tumbled on Wednesday after the company named insider Michael Fiddelke as CEO and retained annual forecasts that were lowered in May. Key developments that could influence markets on Thursday: - Jackson Hole symposium opens - U.S. weekly jobless claims, existing home sales for July, Philadelphia Fed's business index - Walmart results - Flash PMIs for euro zone, France, Germany, Britain
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Gold holds steady as investors await Fed remarks at Jackson Hole
Aug 21 (Reuters) - Gold was little changed on Thursday as investors awaited cues on the Federal Reserve's policy outlook ahead of the annual economic symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which starts later in the day. Spot gold was down 0.2% at $3,339.97 per ounce, as of 0358 GMT. U.S. gold futures for December delivery also lost 0.2% to $3,382.40. The U.S. dollar index (.DXY), opens new tab rose 0.1%, making greenback-back priced gold expensive for overseas buyers. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to deliver a keynote speech on Friday at the symposium, which will be held from August 21-23, with investors closely monitoring whether he backs measures to bolster the labor market or focuses on inflation risks. "We don't think gold prices are going to rise significantly and believe they are consolidating at the moment. Even if interest rates are cut slightly, we might see a slight uptick in gold prices, $3,400 mark is possible. If not, then prices may continue to consolidate or possibly notch a little lower, closer to $3,300," said Brian Lan, managing director, GoldSilver Central, Singapore. Last month, two Fed officials - Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller - voted for a quarter-point rate cut to address job market weakness, but their stance lacked broader support. The Fed has held rates steady since December, with CME's FedWatch tool projecting an 85% chance of a quarter-point rate cut in September. Gold typically performs well in a low-interest-rate environment and during times of heightened uncertainty. U.S. President Donald Trump called on Fed Governor Lisa Cook to resign over alleged issues related to her mortgages in Michigan and Georgia, escalating his efforts to gain influence over the central bank. Elsewhere, Russia said attempts to resolve security issues relating to Ukraine without Moscow's participation were a "road to nowhere". Spot silver was down 0.1% to $37.85 per ounce, platinum fell 0.4% to $1,334.58 and palladium shed 0.5% to $1,108.84.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
European leaders scramble to shield Ukraine in high-stakes Trump talks – but did they?
It was dubbed the 'Great European Charm Offensive'. Hours before Volodymyr Zelenskyy headed to Washington for a Monday meeting with Donald Trump, announcements came pouring in from across Europe, making it clear that the president of Ukraine would not be going alone. Instead, seven European heavyweights – a 'dream team' of leaders representing Europe's economic and military heft and who had a proven rapport with the US president – hastily cleared their schedules to join Zelenskyy in Washington. The result was a meeting set to become among the 'oddest in modern diplomacy', Simon McDonald, former permanent under secretary at the Foreign Office, wrote in the Guardian. Their scramble hinted at just how much was at stake. Days earlier, Trump had met with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, rolling out the red carpet for a man wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes. The US president had gone into the summit insisting he wanted 'some form of a ceasefire'; he came out of it backing pro-Russian positions. As Trump publicly dropped plans for an immediate ceasefire and insisted it was now up to Zelenskyy to 'get it done,' the mood in Moscow was jubilant. At its most simple, the united European front was aimed at avoiding a repeat of Trump's February ambush of Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. But the 'rare and sweeping show of diplomatic force' was also about protecting Ukraine and Europe from any widening aggression from Moscow, said Luke Harding, the Guardian's senior international correspondent, as the leaders of Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Finland landed in Washington alongside their EU and Nato counterparts. The talks offered up a showcase of the lessons learned during Trump's erratic time in power. Flattery flowed fast and freely, with European leaders showering compliments on Trump and gently papering over potential sticking points as much as possible. Six months after Zelenskyy's extraordinary dressing down in the Oval Office, the Ukrainian president peppered his opening remarks with eight thank you's, most of them directed at Trump, as he sported what one European diplomat described as 'almost a suit' in a style that Reuters coined as 'combat formal'. Matthias Matthijs, a senior fellow for Europe at the Council of Foreign Relations, likened it to the meandering trajectory that EU trade relations have taken under Trump: 'There are always high expectations, and then the Europeans' expectations are dashed by the Americans – usually by Trump's social media posts or some interview he gives,' he said following Monday's meeting. 'Then when they meet again, having avoided the worst outcomes, they come to some sort of agreement. It's better than they feared, but it's always worse than the status quo. But as the saying goes, the Europeans live to fight another day.' Fabrizio Tassinari pointed to the broader picture of how Trump had inadvertently become 'the greatest unifier of Europe since the end of the cold war'. Writing in the Guardian, the executive director of the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute in Florence, added: 'For those like myself who have followed the chimera that is European foreign and security policy for years, it was almost an epiphany to witness these seven leaders, each speaking for two minutes, repeating the exact same message.' Days after the unprecedented flurry of diplomacy, questions continue to swirl over what – if anything – might come out of it. On Monday, Trump and several European leaders, said Putin had agreed to face-to-face talks with Zelenskyy in the coming weeks. Moscow, however, has yet to confirm that any such meeting – which would be the first since Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago – is being planned, with a Kremlin aide saying only that Putin and Trump discussed the idea of 'raising the level of representatives' in the Ukraine talks. Trump had also indicated a willingness to be part of security guarantees for Kyiv if there was a deal to end fighting. But the exact nature of those guarantees remains to be seen, with Trump later ruling out the possibility of the US putting troops on the ground in Ukraine and instead floating that Washington could provide air support. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion Concerns also continue to linger over what exactly Trump proposed in Alaska and what, if anything, Putin agreed to during the near three-hour meeting. As Pjotr Sauer, a Guardian Russian affairs reporter, noted, some fear Trump may have overstated the outcome and misjudged Moscow's willingness to compromise. Others, such as Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of charity Hope for Ukraine, suggested Trump is deliberately setting out an exit path for Washington by entertaining Putin's demands that Ukraine withdraws from Donetsk and Luhansk, even as Zelenskyy sets a firm red line against ceding land beyond the present occupation or legitimising Moscow's control. Putin had offered a 'peace deal' that Ukraine would be forced to reject, knowing Trump would then blame Zelenskyy and end US support for Kyiv, he told the Guardian on Monday. After a week dominated by talks and punctuated by Russian bombs continuing to rain down on Ukraine, Boyechko hoped that the jarring contrast would force European leaders to realise that it would take more than just charm offensives to protect the region. 'Ukraine and its European allies must recognise the urgent need to develop their own strategy to defend Ukraine and secure peace in Europe – because it is increasingly likely that Trump will walk away from the peace negotiations.' This is an edited version of the This is Europe newsletter. If you want to read the complete version every Wednesday, please sign up here.
