Powell’s closer attention to cooling job market boosts hopes for Fed rate cuts

Fed Chair Jay Powell on Wednesday again emphasized that he is paying closer attention to a cooling job market, another sign to market watchers that the central bank is inching closer to cutting interest rates.

The latest evidence of that came last Friday when a new report showed the unemployment rate in June ticked up a tenth of a percent for the second month in a row to 4.1%. While that is still historically low, it’s up from 3.4% early last year.Powell's acknowledgement of those risks in the labor market is a sign to Fed watchers that a rate cut is nearing, perhaps as early as September.

Another Republican lawmaker, Mike Lawler, asked Powell whether he acknowledges that a rate cut in September "could be viewed as political just 30-60 days before an election.""It is just not appropriate for us to get into thinking about election cycles," he said. Biden didn't show up for an early evening meeting with the German chancellor because he had to go to bed: report

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