Concern about inflation deepened at the Federal Reserve's meeting last month, with "several" policymakers ready to raise interest rates and "many" saying a hike in borrowing costs would be needed if inflation does not decline to the US central bank's 2% target, the minutes of the session showed on Wednesday.

The policymakers who favoured a rate increase at the meeting "remarked that price pressures appeared broad-based and judged that the (policy-setting) Committee should adopt a more restrictive policy stance to meet its commitment to achieving its price-stability and maximum employment goals on a sustained basis," the minutes of the July 28-29 meeting said. Failure to do so, they argued, would risk "a steeper and potentially more costly sequence of tightening moves at a later stage."

The Fed voted at that meeting to hold its benchmark interest rate ⁠in the current 3.50%-3.75% range, but with three policymakers dissenting in favour of a quarter-percentage point hike. (RTRS – Continue Reading)

Semiconductor shipments continued to power Japan’s exports in July, helping clock the fastest growth since October 2022, beating expectations.

Exports growth accelerated for a fifth straight month, coming in at 23.2%. Economists polled by Reuters had estimated growth at 19.9%.

Shipments of semiconductor equipment posted a massive 49.1% jump in value, reflecting continued demand, boosted by the artificial intelligence boom. (CNBC – Continue Reading)

Australia’s unemployment rate unexpectedly rose in July, supporting the Reserve Bank’s view that the labour market is likely to loosen and prompting traders to pare bets on another interest-rate increase.

The currency and bond yields declined as the jobless rate climbed to 4.5%, surpassing economists’ estimate for an unchanged 4.4%, government data showed Thursday. The economy shed 15,800 jobs — driven entirely by part-time roles — compared with a predicted 12,000 increase. (BBG – Continue Reading)