The Federal Reserve has one more decision in 2025 - and it will set the tone for where interest rates will go in the new year. On Wednesday, leaders at the central bank will decide whether to continue cutting rates or put a pause on loosening monetary policy. The call will have ripple effects across consumer prices, the job market, and Corporate America.
Amid wider economic uncertainty, some analysts have said that businesses are at a "no-hire, no fire" standstill. That's caused many to limit new work to only a few specific roles, if not pause openings entirely. At the same time, sizable layoffs have continued to pile up - raising worker anxieties across sectors. Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs spanning from U.S. President Donald Trump's barrage of new tariffs and shifts in consumer spending.
After pushing for entry for weeks, they visited on Monday and found three people detained there and said the facility was clean. I'm glad that we were finally able to get down there, U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas told reporters following the visit. It does leave a lot of suspicion in my mind as to what was there before, why weren't we allowed to go in. We gave all the notices that we were supposed to.
This morning, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced September retail sales data, which showed sales began slowing even before the government shutdown through the economy for a loop. Sales increased 0.2% in September nationwide, slower than August's 0.6% gain. Worse, essentially all the increase in September "sales" came in the form of price hikes on products. Prices rose 0.3% in the month, and if you back out that increase, shopping-sales actually declined 0.1%.
The latest data covers 1 October through 15 November, the entire period of the government shutdown, which ended on 12 November, plus an additional three days. This included detaining thousands of people with no criminal record. In total, ICE arrested and detained approximately 54,000 people during the shutdown. The agency also deported approximately 56,000 people during this time. Customs and Border Protection additionally arrested and thousands more during the same period, and ICE arrest figures do not account for all people held in ICE detention.
This was "a nightmare scenario," said a firefighter with the park, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. During the last government shutdown six years ago, the revelation that vandals appeared to have chopped down a few of the Dr. Seuss-esque trees grabbed national headlines. In this instance, the firefighter estimates more than a thousand trees were torched.
The US added 119,000 jobs in September, far more than the 53,000 economists expected, and unemployment unexpectedly increased to 4.4% from 4.3%. August's job growth was revised from a gain of 22,000 to a loss of 4,000, and July's growth was revised from a gain of 79,000 to 72,000. "With these revisions, employment in July and August combined is 33,000 lower than previously reported," BLS said.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told a group of random people to get off their fat ass on Wednesday after they posted a TikTok video flipping off President Donald Trump. In the video, the people could be seen giving Trump the middle finger as the rap song F*ck Donald Trump played in the background. F*ck Donald Trump all the way around !!!! they captioned the video on TikTok.
Instead, it will release some of the October jobs data - most importantly the number of jobs that employers created last month - along with the full November jobs report, now due a couple of weeks late on Dec. 16. The department's "employment situation" report usually comes out the first Friday of the month. But the government shutdown disrupted data collection and delayed the release of the reports. For example, the September jobs report, now coming out Thursday, was originally due Oct. 3.
The bill proposes funding salaries, operating expenses and other Federal Aviation Administration programs by tapping into a little-used fund with $2.6 billion that was created to reimburse airlines if the government commandeers their planes and they are damaged. The bill's sponsors, which include four of the top Republicans and Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, hope that relying on the fund might make their bill more attractive than other proposals because it would limit the potential cost of dolling out paychecks.
You could almost mistake it for an ad. Last week, the far-right Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was on the Amtrak Crescent traveling from the nation's capital to her home state, and she was enchanted. "The sweetest people run the train," she posted on X, alongside a video of the autumnal landscape rushing by. "And the morning views of my north Georgia mountains made me smile and warmed my heart."
Thanks to the shutdown, there have not been too many innovative government programs operating over the past few months. NASA was able to continue its latest crowdfunding challenge, which asks people to help design new tires for future moon missions, largely because that is hosted by its partner site, HeroX. But beyond that, most everything was either shuttered or running with skeleton crews.
The markets are ending the week on a low note as the global selloff continued in Asia and Europe this morning, prompted by rising uncertainty stemming from the U.S. economy. Doubts about a much-anticipated December interest rate cut from the Fed are mounting, with the likely outcome obscured by patchy data after Washington's government shutdown. Wall Street was bumpy yesterday. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones posted contractions of more than 1.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell by 2.3%.
