Under tremendous pressure to come up with billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s military and backfill its members’ own dwindling arsenals, the European Union said Wednesday that it had devised a legal way to use frozen Russian assets to help arm Ukraine, just as it was considering other mechanisms to bolster its defense industries. The […]
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U.S. Leading Soft Landing for Global Economy
The world is starting 2024 on an optimistic economic note, as inflation fades globally and growth remains more resilient than many forecasters had expected. Yet one country stands out for its surprising strength: the United States. After a sharp pop in prices rocked the world in 2021 and 2022 — fueled by supply chain breakdowns […]
Read MoreEurozone Economy Flatlines, Raising Concerns About Falling Behind
The eurozone economy stagnated late last year as a lingering energy crisis sparked a loss of competitiveness in some European industries, and consumers reined in spending to grapple with high living costs, Europe’s statistics agency reported Tuesday. But economists believe the worst may be over, as the European Central Bank continues its campaign to wring […]
Read MoreWhen Will the European Central Bank Start Cutting Rates?
If what goes up must come down, then the urgent question on the minds of many in Europe is when will interest rates begin dropping? For months, rates have been set at the highest in the European Central Bank’s history. Despite the protests of the eurozone’s policymakers, investors have been betting that the central bank […]
Read MoreThe Debate on Wall Street: Did the Fed Pivot Too Soon on Rates?
The big questions swirling around the market rally The S&P 500 is closing in on a record after the Fed signaled it would be cutting interest rates next year. Investors are betting that the U.S. economy will pull off the rosiest of outcomes: a soft-landing and cheaper borrowing costs. But some Wall Street veterans are […]
Read MorePowell, Fed’s Chair, Unleashes the Bulls
Higher for (not much) longer The “everything rally” has gone global, sending stocks and bonds soaring in Asia and Europe and lifting U.S. stock futures, after investors got their clearest signal yet that the Fed would begin cutting interest rates soon. Hopes are growing, too, on Thursday that other central banks will follow suit. The […]
Read MoreClimate Protesters Get in Fed’s Face as Policy Clash Grows Louder
A video of security officers wrestling a protester to the floor in the lobby of the Jackson Lake Lodge in Wyoming, outside the Federal Reserve’s most closely watched annual conference, clocked more than a million views. A protest that disrupted a speech by Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, at the Economic Club of New […]
Read MoreEurozone Economy Shrinks, While Price Pressures Ease
Growth in the eurozone contracted unexpectedly this summer, as rising interest rates cooled momentum in Germany and France, the region’s two biggest economies, Europe’s statistics agency reported Tuesday. The downturn reflected the challenges facing policymakers at the European Central Bank, who last week paused their campaign of interest rate increases to fight inflation amid signs […]
Read MoreEuropean Central Bank Keeps Rates on Hold for First Time in Over a Year
The European Central Bank held interest rates steady on Thursday for the first time in over a year as policymakers moved into their next phase of fighting inflation. Officials have shifted their focus to how long they will need to maintain high interest rates in order to push inflation all the way down to the […]
Read MoreFragile Global Economy Faces New Crisis in Israel-Gaza War
The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that the pace of the global economic recovery is slowing, a warning that came as a new war in the Middle East threatened to upend a world economy already reeling from several years of overlapping crises. The eruption of fighting between Israel and Hamas over the weekend, which […]
Read MoreEuropean Central Bank Raises Rates for a 10th Time
The European Central Bank on Thursday raised interest rates for a 10th consecutive time in an effort to force inflation down. The bank lifted its three key interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, raising the deposit rate to 4 percent, the highest in the central bank’s two-decade history. “Inflation continues to decline […]
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