Consumers Push June Retail Sales Past Expectations
41 minutes ago
Retail sales were stronger than economists expected in June, as Census Bureau data showed that an anticipated slowdown in sales is not here yet.
U.S. retail sales were unchanged compared to May, much better than the 0.4% decline projected by economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswire. The Census Bureau also updated its results for May, moving its sales data higher to now reflect a 0.3% rise when compared with the prior month.
“Across the board, this was a healthy check-in on the consumer,” wrote Bret Kenwell, U.S. investment analyst at eToro.
-Terry Lane
Traders Are 100% Sure The Fed Will Cut Rates in September
1 hr 9 min ago
While traders are fairly confident the Federal Reserve will hold their interest rate steady at their next meeting at the end of the month, they’re even more sure that the central bank will begin to cut rates at its September meeting.
According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data, traders are pricing in a 100% chance that the Federal Reserve will cut its influential fed funds rate in September. A rate cut would give some relief to businesses and households pressured by high borrowing costs, as rates on mortgages, credit cards and other loans would follow the Fed’s lead.
This is some of the highest confidence from traders during the nearly two-year-long inflation fight and could change based on economic data that has yet to be released or the Fed’s own comments at their July meeting.
Fed officials have said they will be reliant on economic data to give them more confidence that inflation is moving toward their annual goal of 2%. The data, they said, will help them decide when it is best to cut interest rates that have sat at a more than two-decade high for the past year.