Iran War Pushes US Inflation Higher, Trump Heads to China, More
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Hello, I'm Stephen Carroll. I'm in Brussels, where many of Europe's biggest decisions get made.
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News when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Monica Ricks. The war in Iran is now showing impacts on U.S. inflation, which ticked higher in April on rising gas and grocery prices, exceeding wage growth and a double whammy for already strained consumers. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the consumer price index rose 3.8 percent from a year earlier, the highest in three years. But Bloomberg economist Stuart Paul says he's taking that inflation report with a grain of salt.
During the government shutdown, data were not collected for rents and owner's equivalents of rents. And the thing to keep in mind is that housing is sampled every six months. The sample rotates on a monthly basis, so you only have points of comparison every six months. So the reading today is measuring against a base of basically zero inflation last October. And that's why we got this pop in shelter inflation.
Bloomberg economist Stuart Paul. Consumer sentiment also at a record low, with Americans saving less and borrowing more to keep up with those higher costs. President Trump's now on his way to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but was asked if Americans' financial situation would motivate him to make a deal with Iran.
The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about
Iran will be a big topic of discussion in China, as well as trade and Taiwan. The president was also asked about FDA Commissioner Marty McCary today, who's resigning now after just 13 months on the job.
He was having some difficulty. You know, he's a great doctor and he was having some difficulty, but he's going to go on and he's going to do well.
McCary had reportedly angered pharma CEOs, vaping lobbyists and anti-abortion groups and had repeatedly clashed with other Trump officials. Kyle Diamantis will be stepping in as acting FDA commissioner. The Senate has confirmed Kevin Warsh's nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. That grants him a 14-year term and advances his confirmation as chairman, which is expected tomorrow. Most Democrats opposed Warsh's confirmation due to concerns that he wouldn't maintain the central bank's independence. But Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austin Goolsbee said today he doesn't think that'll be a problem.
I don't think Fed independence is truly under threat or... Maybe that's the wrong phrase. I don't think that it's going away. The people who sit around the table take the job extremely seriously.
Goolsbee speaking at a Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Rockford, Illinois today. President Trump's still pushing for the Fed to cut interest rates, but that could be much harder now, given today's inflation data. We checked the markets for you all day long here at Bloomberg, and stocks were mixed to end the trading day amid a chip sell-off and inflation woes. The Dow added 56 points, up just a tenth of a percent. The Nasdaq lost seven-tenths percent, down 185 points.
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