Scott Horsley

Cook has denied any wrongdoing.

By design, the Fed is supposed to be insulated from political pressure in making decisions about interest rates, but Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to bend the central bank to his will.

After news that the Justice Department is investigating the Fed, Chairman Jerome Powell said he and his colleagues will not be intimidated.

Powell will be in the audience for today's Supreme Court hearing.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

Consumer prices in December were up 2.7 percent from a year ago.

That's the same annual increase as the previous month.

Prices are still climbing faster than the Federal Reserve would like.

The central banks expected to hold interest rates steady this month after cutting rates at its last three meetings.

President Trump has waged an extraordinary pressure campaign in an effort to get the Fed to cut rates more aggressively.

Last weekend, we learned the Justice Department is investigating the central bank.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell insists he and his colleagues will not be intimidated.

For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell three-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 Index fell four-tenths, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped two-thirds of a percent.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

Mass demonstrations in Iran had briefly pushed crude oil prices higher, but those prices dropped again after President Trump signaled a possible cooling in the Iranian government's crackdown.

The benchmark price for crude oil in the U.S.

is back below $60 a barrel.

Fewer people filed new applications for unemployment benefits last week than the week before.

That suggests that even though the pace of hiring has slowed down, layoffs remain relatively rare.

As of late December, 2.2 million people were receiving some form of jobless assistance.