Wall Street Today | Powell hammers home 'unconditional' commitment to cool prices
MACRO
Powell Hammers Home 'Unconditional' Commitment to Cool Prices
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell called his commitment to curbing inflation "unconditional" and another of his colleagues backed raising interest rates by 75 basis points again next month, even as Democrats warned him against triggering a recession.
"We have a labor market that is sort of unsustainably hot and we're very far from our inflation target," Powell told the House Financial Services Committee Thursday during his second day of semiannual congressional testimony. "We really need to restore price stability, get inflation back down to 2%, because without that we're not going to be able to have a sustained period of maximum employment."
U.S. Jobless Claims Held Near Historic Lows Last Week
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 last week from the previous week's revised level of 231,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That is slightly above the 2019 prepandemic weekly average of 218,000, when the job market was also historically tight.
Mortgage Rates Continue to Rise, Hitting 5.81%
Mortgage rates reached the highest level in more than 13 years for the second straight week. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 5.81%, mortgage-finance giant $FREDDIE MAC (FMCC.US)$ said Thursday, the highest level since November 2008.
SECTORS
US Banks Take A Hit from Discounted Corporate Bond Sales
Markets have dropped much further than envisaged in 2022, as high inflation, the war in Europe and constrained supply chains have been met by central banks lifting borrowing costs and withdrawing vast debt-buying programs.
An index of high-yield bonds run by Ice Data Services has dropped nearly 13 per cent so far in 2022. Investment banks have cut the prices of companies' bonds in an effort to attract buyers — eating into their underwriting fees.
COMPANY
Amazon Is Training Alexa to Imitate Voices of Real People, Including the Dead
$Amazon (AMZN.US)$ is developing a voice-mimicking feature for its virtual assistant Alexa that replicates the speech of people alive and dead, joining other companies that are experimenting with creating digital memories of people after death.
Walmart Amps Up Cloud Capabilities, Reducing Reliance on Tech Giants
$Walmart (WMT.US)$ said on Thursday it has developed the capability to switch seamlessly between cloud providers and its own servers, saving millions of dollars and offering a road map to other organizations that want to reduce their dependence on giant technology companies.
Toyota Recalls EV Fleet As Challenge to Tesla Dominance Suffers Setback
$Toyota Motor (TM.US)$ is recalling its fleet of 2,700 electric vehicles less than two months after launching its first mass-produced battery-powered sport utility vehicle, which was designed to take on $Tesla (TSLA.US)$. The world s largest carmaker issued the global recall of its fully electric SUV bZ4X on Thursday, warning that the wheels could potentially fall off because of issues with bolts that connect them to the vehicle.
FedEx Gets More Selective About Shipments, Profit Rises
$FedEx (FDX.US)$ reported higher quarterly earnings and issued a stronger-than-expected full-year forecast on Thursday, after it cherry-picked profit-boosting deliveries amid softening global demand for shipping. FedEx's closely-watched Ground unit margin improved from the prior quarter, helping to send shares of the Memphis-based company up 2.4% to $233.65 in extended trading.
Source: Bloomberg, WSJ, FT
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lightfoot : undo Biden's lunacy you wouldn't need the Feds. what a shame how the Democratd have destroyed America. .
lightfoot : Hidden insurrection is tyranny. The Democrats. " Collusion, plotting, the DOJ so corrupt. even concealing Nancy Pelosi husband Paul's drunk driving. do you think we can make profits against this incompetence. when they are guilty of inside trading.
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more diligence. investing has political ramifications, sometimes big like taming a recession but raising interest rates because of incompetence of government. the cost of building a house is overwhelming plus high mortgage rates.
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lightfoot : Elon should create a program to sweep the US Gov for red tags(corruption) and collusion we all know exists. The people shall not be infringed by this government. Stupidity from the puppet string holders on Biden and Harris.
lightfoot : I once loved this nation but how do you love rape. pillage and tyranny by the government.
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lightfoot : insurrection heck, Civil War is on the future calendar. Fellow investors you haven't seen anything yet. 1.5 trillion tax bill coming.
lightfoot : if you take out the batteries of Joe Biden, he will fall to the ground like Hillary.
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