Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Sticking with the plan

Nope. But maybe later. That’s the call from Washington as the Federal Reserve voted unanimously to keep the benchmark rate exactly where it is while penciling in one cut for later this year. That single planned reduction is a lot less than the three they forecast in March. Instead, the central bank now sees four cuts next year, more than the three they previously outlined for 2025. Still, Wall Street traders appeared giddy rather than disappointed. Stocks hit fresh, all-time highs on Wednesday as investors stuck with a bet that rates will drop at least twice in 2024. The S&P 500 even topped 5,400 for the first time ever. Perhaps traders don’t believe Fed Chair Jerome Powell? Or maybe they hope new data will move him and his colleagues toward more cuts come summer. —David E. Rovella

New inflation data arguably gives the Fed reason to be less conservative than its current plan. The so-called core consumer price index cooled to its slowest pace in more than three years, according to data out Wednesday. The figures, taken with the deceleration in the core CPI in April, may represent the early stages of inflation resuming a downward trend after a jump start to the year. But policymakers are stressing the need to see several months of price pressures receding before they consider lowering  rates, especially with the latest jobs report showing the continuing power of America’s thrumming labor market.

But those high rates come with a price. The US government added
$347 billion to the deficit in May, up 5% over the same month last year as elevated borrowing costs continued to drive the growth in spending. That brought the year-to-date shortfall to $1.2 trillion, slightly lower than the first eight months of fiscal year 2023. On the spending side, year-to-date outlays for interest paid on public debt reached $728 billion, a 37% increase over last year. Total outlays for the fiscal year grew an adjusted 6% to $4.5 trillion. The culprit? The Fed of course and its aggressive interest-rate hiking campaign.

The European Union will impose additional tariffs on electric cars shipped from China starting next month, taking levies to as much as 48% in a move that further escalates trade tensions and adds to the cost of buying an EV on the continent. The bloc formally notified carmakers including BYD, Geely and SAIC of the charges on battery-electric cars following an investigation of subsidies that started last year. China’s EV manufacturers have been pushing more aggressively into Europe amid a domestic price war and years of building a lead in the technology.

There’s still significant noise in the latest US inflation report, but the things that really matter are moving in the right direction, Jonathan Levin writes in Bloomberg Opinion. The so-called supercore services index, which excludes the lagged shelter category, saw prices fall slightly from the previous month, the first time that’s occurred in nearly three years. It was just one month in a notoriously volatile data set, but Levin says it adds to evidence from April that the hot first quarter was an aberration in a longer disinflation process. 

Children in Gaza accounted for almost 40% of all minors killed in conflicts worldwide last year, according to an upcoming United Nations report. The killing of more than 2,000 Palestinian and 40 Israeli children helped push violence against children to “extreme levels” in 2023, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the report, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News and is scheduled to be released  later this month.

For two decades, a California law has helped workers sue the world’s biggest companies. Drivers for Uber won a $20 million settlement, Google employees secured $27 million over complaints of free-speech violations and Walmart agreed to pay $65 million for allegedly not providing seating to their cashiers. Now, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is quietly overseeing talks about changing that law after prodding from some of California’s largest business interests, who say a cascade of progressive policy wins in the state—like raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour and increasing paid sick days—are eating away at their bottom lines.

Fired SpaceX engineers have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk for sexual harassment and retaliation in California state court, escalating their multifront legal battle with the billionaire. “Musk knowingly and purposefully created an unwelcome hostile work environment based upon his conduct of interjecting into the workplace vile sexual photographs, memes and commentary that demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community,” the eight former employees said in their Wednesday filing.  

Elon Musk Photographer: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

• Macron says he won’t quit if his party loses French snap election.
• G-7 to call on China to stop helping Russia’s war on Ukraine.
• The rise and fall of America’s $600 million strip-mall tycoon
• Michigan’s largest insurer to drop weight-loss drug coverage.
• Bloomberg Opinion: Biden’s remarkable reaction to his son’s conviction.
• Britain’s “quiet quitters” are costing the economy $327 billion.
• This NFL rookie quarterback is launching an investment firm.

It takes more time, money and homework than ever to eat at a restaurant these days. Bots are snapping up prime slots in dining rooms across the US, and if you do get a seat, inflation will make your meal a lot more expensive. Restaurant prices in April were up 4.1% from a year earlier, whereas groceries were only 1.1% higher. So it’s worth issuing a calming reminder: You can go out to eat without going to a restaurant. In fact, you can have world-class food on beautiful plates with nice cutlery—and surround yourself with all the best people—with a lot less hassle than dining out. This kind of ultimate summer party has a name.

Illustration by Beya Panicha.

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