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    Powell says Fed in no ‘hurry’ to lower interest rates further

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    $75 per monthComplete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition More

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    Fed Chair Jerome Powell Says No Need to ‘Hurry’ to Cut Rates

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    A strong economy is giving Federal Reserve officials room to move “carefully” as they lower interest rates, the central bank chair said.Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, said that a solid economy with low unemployment, robust consumer spending and strengthening business investment gave the central bank room to take its time in cutting interest rates.“The economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates,” Mr. Powell said during a speech in Dallas on Thursday. “The strength we are currently seeing in the economy gives us the ability to approach our decisions carefully.”The Fed is trying to navigate a complicated moment. The economy remains healthy overall, but the job market has slowed over the past year. Inflation has also been cooling steadily. Between the two developments, central bankers have decided that they no longer need to tap the brakes on the economy quite so hard.After lifting interest rates sharply in 2022 and 2023 in a bid to cool the economy and wrestle rapid inflation back under control, they have begun to lower borrowing costs in recent months.But officials still want to make sure that they fully stamp out rapid inflation. Price increases have cooled substantially from their 2022 peak, but they have not completely returned to the central bank’s 2 percent goal. Prices climbed 2.1 percent in the year through September, and are on track to come in a bit above that in October, based on other recent data reports.Mr. Powell made it clear that Fed officials expected to see limited progress on inflation in the next few months.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Argentina stokes concerns it could quit Paris climate accord

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    Standard DigitalStandard & FT Weekend Printwasnow $29 per 3 monthsThe new FT Digital Edition: today’s FT, cover to cover on any device. This subscription does not include access to ft.com or the FT App.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts10 monthly gift articles to shareGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionEverything in PrintWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisPlusEverything in Premium DigitalEverything in Standard DigitalGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresFirstFT newsletterVideos & PodcastsFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit app10 gift articles per monthExclusive FT analysisPremium newslettersFT Digital Edition10 additional gift articles per monthMake and share highlightsFT WorkspaceMarkets data widgetSubscription ManagerWorkflow integrationsOccasional readers go freeVolume discountFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Standard DigitalFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Premium Digital More

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    Ford Fined by Safety Agency Over Defective Rearview Camera Recalls

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    The regulator faulted the automaker for not recalling cars with defective rearview cameras quickly enough and for providing incomplete and inaccurate information.Ford Motor will pay a fine of up to $165 million for not recalling cars with defective rearview cameras in a timely manner, the federal government’s main auto safety agency said on Thursday.The agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Ford also had failed to provide accurate and complete information about the defect and recall. If Ford is required to pay the full sum, it will be the second-largest fine ever issued by the regulator. The largest fine, a $200 million penalty in 2015, was levied against Takata, a Japanese company that made defective airbag inflaters that resulted in a huge, global recall.The safety agency said a defective rearview camera could increase the risk of a crash.“Timely and accurate recalls are critical to keeping everyone safe on our roads,” the agency’s deputy administrator, Sophie Shulman, said in a statement. “When manufacturers fail to prioritize the safety of the American public and meet their obligations under federal law, NHTSA will hold them accountable.”Under a consent decree between the agency and Ford, the automaker is required to pay $65 million. A second sum of $55 million will be deferred and can be partly or completely reversed if Ford makes changes to improve its ability to identify defects and alert the safety agency quickly.Ford also agreed to spend $45 million to improve its ability to analyze data, create a new means of sharing information and documents with the safety agency, and set up a base to test rearview camera components.“We appreciate the opportunity to resolve this matter with NHTSA and remain committed to continuously improving safety and compliance at Ford,” the automaker said in a statement. “Wide-ranging enhancements are already underway with more to come, including advanced data analytics, a new in-house testing facility, among other capabilities.”According to a summary of the safety agency’s investigation, the defect was related to a faulty circuit board that caused rearview cameras in certain models to stop working. The agency received 15 complaints about the defect but did not identify any injuries or fatalities caused by it.Ford first identified the defect in 2020 and issued a recall for more than 620,000 vehicles, largely from the 2020 model year, including F-Series pickups, Mustangs and several sport utility vehicles. A year later, the safety agency opened an investigation to determine if Ford had accurately identified and reported all of the vehicles that could have been affected by the camera defect.Ford expanded the recall in 2023 and again this year. Separately, Ford recalled a different set of rearview cameras in 2023 at a cost of $270 million. More

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    Wholesale prices rose 0.2% in October, in line with expectations

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    Wholesale prices nudged higher in October, though largely in line with expectations and mostly consistent with the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates again in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.
    The producer price index, which measures what producers get for their products, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, up one-tenth of a percentage point from September though matching the Dow Jones consensus forecast. On a 12-month basis, headline wholesale inflation was at 2.4%.

    Excluding food and energy, core PPI rose 0.3%, also one-tenth more than September and also matching expectations. The 12-month rate was at 3.1%.
    Though the readings are above the Fed’s 2% inflation goal, the trend is showing that price increases are generally moderating and inflation is being pushed by isolated factors.
    Services rose 0.3% on the month, accounting for most of the PPI increase, and was driven largely by a 3.6% surge in portfolio management prices. Food prices fell 0.2% on the month while energy was off by 0.3%. Goods prices nudged higher by 0.1% after falling the previous two months.
    Markets reacted little to the news, with stock futures pointing to a mixed open while Treasury yields held higher.
    Traders expect the Fed to follow up rate cuts in September and November with another quarter percentage point reduction at the Dec. 17-18 meeting. After that, market pricing points to the Fed skipping January and moving at a slower easing pace through 2025.

    The market-implied probability for a December rate cut nudged down to 76.1% following the release, an area that still indicates a strong likelihood, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch gauge of futures prices.
    In other economic news Thursday, the Labor Department reported that the pace of layoffs continued to moderate after a brief spike.
    Initial filings for unemployment benefits totaled 217,000 for the week ended Nov. 9, down 4,000 from the previous period and slightly lower than the 220,000 estimate.
    Continuing claims, which run a week behind, totaled 1.873 million, down 11,000 from the prior week.

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    ECB cut rates to avoid damage to economy, meeting minutes show

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    ECB divided on risk of excessively weak inflation, accounts show

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    The ECB cut rates for the third time this year in October and made clear that further easing is coming given a weak economy and diminishing price pressures, even if the timing and size of policy moves remained open. “Acting now could provide insurance against downside risks that could lead to an undershooting of the target further ahead and would support a soft landing,” the ECB said, acknowledging that only limited new information was available.If these few indicators were a blip and misled expectations about weak inflation, the bank could then simply avoid a rate cut in December, the accounts suggested. “If the slowdown signalled by indicators of economic activity and the downside surprise to inflation proved to be temporary, a decision to cut rates now could, ex post, turn out as merely having brought forward a December cut,” the ECB added. However, the accounts also seemed to reveal disagreement over just how weak price pressures may be.Policymakers were in agreement that inflation would hit 2% earlier than previous projections for the end of 2025 but there were different views on what came after.One group seemed to argue that undershooting the target was not on the cards.”Such a scenario of undershooting probably required a combination of factors that were not yet present,” the accounts said. “These included disappointing economic growth that moved into recessionary territory, a weakening in the financial system, wage pressures fading away and a downward shift in inflation expectations.”But there was another group who thought the problem was deeper and the ECB was at risk of going below its target, an outcome the bank considers as undesirable as overshooting. “By contrast, it was also suggested that the change in the inflation outlook had been more significant,” the accounts said. They argued that downside inflation surprises and rapid changes in market expectations pointed to an increasing risk of undershooting the target, possibly in a sustained manner. “This could now be seen as a greater risk than overshooting the target,” they said. More

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    Sotheby’s settles New York tax fraud case, pays damages

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    NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sotheby’s will pay $6.25 million and adopt reforms to settle New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit accusing the famed auction house of fraudulently helping clients avoid sales taxes on tens of millions of dollars of art purchases.Thursday’s settlement resolves claims that Sotheby’s let at least eight clients cheat New York state from 2010 to 2020 by using “resale certificates” that falsely portrayed them as art dealers entitled to tax exemptions, instead of art collectors.James said Sotheby’s accepted certificates from one client, a contemporary art enthusiast, who spent more than $27 million on works by artists like painter Jean-Michel Basquiat and sculptor Anish Kapoor, despite knowing he was a collector.She said some employees even helped the unnamed client display works at his home, or admired them on the walls. The $6.25 million includes damages, penalties and legal costs.”Sotheby’s intentionally broke the law,” James said in a statement. “Every person and company in New York knows they are required to pay taxes, and when people break the rules, we all lose out.”The New York-based auction house did not admit or deny wrongdoing, and said it settled to avoid the time, expense and distraction of litigation.Sotheby’s reforms include a new policy on resale certificates and improved employee training to determine whether art purchasers are planning resales.James had sued Sotheby’s in November 2020, seeking damages and civil penalties for violating the state’s False Claims Act.The unnamed client’s company, Porsal Equities, had agreed in 2018 to pay $10.75 million to resolve related New York claims over its use of resale certificates. In a statement, Sotheby’s said it “remains committed to full compliance with all applicable law.” It also said it provided much of the evidence that led to the Porsal settlement. More