Indonesia Set to Hold Rate as Trump Tariff Talks Weigh on Rupiah
Twenty-seven of 29 economists in a Bloomberg survey expect the BI-Rate to be kept at 5.75% on Wednesday, with two predicting a quarter-point cut. It would be a third straight rate pause since policymakers lowered borrowing costs in January, just before the start of Donald Trump's presidency.
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US applications for jobless benefits rise last week, but layoffs remain historically low
WASHINGTON -- More Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but U.S. layoffs remain in the same historically healthy range of the past few years. Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 16 rose by 11,000 to 235,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That's slightly more than the 229,000 new applications that economists had forecast. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as a proxy for layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic more than three years ago. While layoffs remain low by historical comparisons, there has been noticeable deterioration in the labor market this year and mounting evidence that people are having difficulty finding jobs. U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, well short of the 115,000 analysts forecast. Worse, revisions to the May and June figures shaved 258,000 jobs off previous estimates and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%. That report sent financial markets spiraling, spurring President Donald Trump to fire Erika McEntarfer, the head of Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tallies the monthly employment numbers. The BLS does not contribute to the weekly unemployment benefits report except to calculate the annual seasonal adjustments. The BLS reported earlier this week that the unemployment rate in Washington, D.C. eclipsed 6% in July, the third straight month that it was the highest in the U.S. The rising D.C. jobless rate is a reflection of the mass layoffs of federal workers by Trump's Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year. An overall decline in international tourism — a main driver of D.C.'s income — is also expected to have an impact on the climbing unemployment rate in the District. Neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia, where many federal employees reside, also saw an uptick in unemployment rates in July. Since the beginning of Trump's second term, federal workers across government agencies have been either laid off or asked to voluntarily resign, spurring lawsuits from labor unions and advocacy groups. Another recent report on the U.S. labor market showed that employers posted 7.4 million job vacancies in June, down from 7.7 million in May. The number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in finding a better job — fell in June to the lowest level since December. Some major companies have announced job cuts this year, including Procter & Gamble, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, Google and Facebook parent company Meta. Intel and The Walt Disney Co. also recently announced staff reductions. Many economists contend that Trump's erratic rollout of tariffs against U.S. trading partners has created uncertainty for employers, who have grown reluctant to expand their payrolls. The Labor Department's report Thursday showed that the four-week average of claims, which softens some of the week-to-week swings, rose by 4,500 to 226,500. The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Aug. 9 jumped by 30,000 to 1.97 million, the most since November 6, 2021.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US weekly jobless claims rise to highest since June
(Reuters) -The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits rose by the most in about three months last week in an initial signal that layoffs may be picking up and adding to signs the labor market is weakening. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 11,000 - the largest increase since late May - to a seasonally adjusted 235,000 for the week ended August 16, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 225,000 claims for the latest week. The labor market had split into low firings and tepid hiring as businesses navigate President Donald Trump's protectionist trade policy, which has raised the nation's average import duty to its highest in a century. Employment gains averaged 35,000 jobs per month over the last three months, the government reported in early August. Domestic demand grew in the second quarter at its slowest pace since the fourth quarter of 2022. The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, rose 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.972 million - the highest since November 2021 - during the week ending August 9, the claims report showed. The elevated so-called continuing claims align with consumers' rising perceptions that jobs are hard to find. Economists said the continuing claims trend was consistent with the unemployment rate rising to 4.3% in August from 4.2% in July. Sign in to access your portfolio
CNBC
32 minutes ago
- CNBC
How billionaire family offices bet on stocks during tariff turmoil
Family offices are known to invest for the long haul, sometimes for generations. But after President Donald Trump's tariff announcements in April, the family offices of billionaire investors were quick to make significant changes to their portfolios, according to second-quarter securities filings analyzed by CNBC. Some moves were clearly connected to tariff and recession fears. In the three months ending June 30, the family offices of David Tepper, Leon Cooperman and George Soros exited their positions in casino stock Las Vegas Sands Corp. Casino operator shares tumbled on fears that a U.S.-China trade war would endanger their Macau operations. However, some firms dialed back their exposure to stalwart tech stocks, with Cooperman's Omega Advisors exiting its Microsoft position and reducing its Alphabet stock by nearly 90%. Stanley Druckenmiller's Duquesne Family Office sold down 37 positions, including Amazon and about a half dozen pharmaceutical stocks. Cooperman told CNBC in June that he thought the stock market was too confident given uncertainties with tariffs and conflicts in the Middle East. "I'm not a big bear, but I'm not a big bull either," he said on "Squawk Box." Institutional investment managers — including family offices and hedge funds — that manage at least $100 million in certain securities, especially U.S.-listed equities, are required to disclose trades on a quarterly basis. While many family offices have stock portfolios worth well over $100 million, they do not have to file these 13F forms if they outsource investment decisions to a third party like JP Morgan or Bessemer Trust, according to lawyer David Guin, a partner at Withers who leads its U.S. corporate practice. Not all the moves were related to bigger geopolitical concerns. Despite concerns about tariffs on semiconductors, family offices boosted their Nvidia holdings. Tepper's Appaloosa Management increased its Nvidia holdings by nearly 500%. Soros Fund Management purchased about 932,000 share-equivalents in Nvidia, including options. The Inside Wealth newsletter by Robert Frank is your weekly guide to high-net-worth investors and the industries that serve them. Subscribe here to get access today. In another artificial intelligence play, several firms boosted their bets on other chipmakers, with Appaloosa buying 8 million shares of Intel and 755,000 shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Duquesne and Soros also increased their positions in TSMC. Omega Advisors doubled down on energy providers, which are poised to benefit from AI's energy demands, including Atlas Energy Solutions, Sunoco and Energy Transfer LP. As family offices have long investment horizons, they can afford to be opportunistic and wait for stocks to rebound. Appaloosa bought 2.3 million shares in UnitedHealth Group, which suffered a 19% selloff in April after the insurer cut its annual profit forecast. Tepper's hedge-fund-turned-family-office also bought new stakes in United Airlines and Delta Air Lines even as recession fears threw airline stocks for a loop. Some of Appaloosa's peers made similar bold bets, with Soros Fund Management and BlueCrest Capital Management, the family office of British hedge fund billionaire Michael Platt, also increasing their exposure to UnitedHealth. BlueCrest also started new positions in Delta and United.
