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Real-time News
On December 31st, the Federal Reserve meeting minutes revealed that, in discussing risk management factors that could influence the outlook for monetary policy, participants generally agreed that upside risks to inflation remained high, while downside risks to employment were also high and had increased since mid-2025. Most participants noted that a shift to a more neutral policy stance would help prevent a significant deterioration in labor market conditions. Many of these participants also believed that existing evidence suggested a reduced likelihood of tariffs causing persistent inflationary pressures. In contrast, some participants noted that upside risks to inflation could be deeply entrenched and argued that further cuts to policy rates, given persistently high inflation data, could be misinterpreted as a weakening commitment by policymakers to the 2% inflation target.December 31st - The Federal Reserve meeting minutes stated that, in discussing the monetary policy decision, members unanimously agreed that existing indicators suggest economic activity is expanding at a moderate pace. They also unanimously agreed that job growth has slowed this year, and the unemployment rate rose slightly through September. Members noted that recent indicators are consistent with these trends. They observed that inflation has risen since the beginning of the year and remains at a high level. They unanimously agreed that the Committee is closely monitoring the risks on both sides of its dual mandate, and that downside risks to employment have increased in recent months.On December 31, the Federal Reserve meeting minutes revealed that, based on discussions regarding the balance sheet, committee members unanimously agreed that reserves had fallen to an adequate level and that the Committee would begin purchasing short-term Treasury securities as needed to maintain an adequate supply of reserves. They also agreed to remove the total cap on standing repurchase operations.On December 31st, the minutes of the Federal Reserves December meeting revealed that regarding the inflation outlook, participants generally expected inflation to remain somewhat high in the near term before gradually declining to 2%. Many participants emphasized that they expected the impact of tariffs on core goods inflation to diminish, but some participants expressed uncertainty about when this impact would diminish and the extent to which tariffs would ultimately be passed on to final goods prices. Some participants stated that their business contacts reported persistent input cost pressures unrelated to tariffs, but some of these participants noted that weak demand limited some businesses ability to raise prices, or that increased business productivity might enable some businesses to cope with these cost pressures. Most participants expected housing services inflation to continue declining, and a minority expected core non-housing services inflation to also continue declining. Participants generally agreed that inflation risks remained skewed to the upside, although some participants indicated that they believed these upside risks had diminished. Some participants emphasized the concern that the risk of inflation being more persistent than expected.Waymo, Googles self-driving car company, has received authorization from Nevada and has begun testing autonomous vehicles with safety drivers in Las Vegas.
