• Aug 12, 2024

Crypto Startups Raised More VC Money During Market Slowdown

(Bloomberg) -- Crypto startups raised more money but closed fewer deals in the most recent quarter, mirroring the broader slowdown seen in the digital-asset world. Most Read from BloombergHow a Tiny Midwestern Town Became a Mecca for Modern ArchitectureHow Chicago’s Gigantic Merchandise Mart Is Still Thriving as Office SpaceLos Angeles Sees Remote Work Helping ‘No Car’ 2028 Olympic GamesIn DNC, Chicago’s Embattled Transit System Faces a High-Profile TestNYC Subway Riders See ‘Exceptionally High’

  • Aug 12, 2024

Morning Bid: Markets pray inflation stays well behaved

Off-radar for much of the past week's market turbulence, U.S. inflation updates this week will reveal just how much latitude the Federal Reserve has to meet pumped-up expectations around its first interest rate cut next month. With the S&P500 ending last week basically unchanged despite days of outsize swings, the VIX volatility gauge has returned close to long-term means around 20.

  • Aug 12, 2024

Americans' refusal to keep paying higher prices may be dealing a final blow to US inflation spike

The great inflation spike of the past three years is nearly spent — and economists credit American consumers for helping slay it. “While inflation is down, prices are still high, and I think consumers have gotten to the point where they’re just not accepting it,” Tom Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said last week at a conference of business economists. A more price-sensitive consumer helps explain why inflation has appeared to be steadily falling toward the Federal Reserve's 2% target, ending a period of painfully high prices that strained many people's budgets and darkened their outlooks on the economy.

  • Aug 12, 2024

US consumer medium-term inflation expectations drop

The median three-year inflation expectation dropped to 2.3% from 2.9% in June to register its lowest reading since the New York Fed launched the monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations in 2013. Fed officials - who've been battling high inflation for more than two years - track a range of measures of inflation expectations because they worry that if they begin to drift substantially upward, consumers and businesses will alter their spending behaviors in ways that can make inflation harder to tame. Recent measures of inflation have shown it returning toward the Fed's 2% target, and the central bank is now widely expected to cut interest rates next month.