Economy

Even before a disappointing July jobs report, Federal Reserve officials thought they would probably cut rates at their Sept. 17-18 meeting.Federal Reserve officials held off on cutting interest rates at their July meeting, but minutes from that gathering showed that they were clearly poised to lower them at their meeting in September, just weeks before the presidential election.“The vast majority” of officials thought that “if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting,” according to notes from the meeting released on Wednesday.Days after the Fed’s July gathering, a disappointing employment report showed that employers hired more slowly than expected. And in the weeks since, fresh data have showed that inflation continues to cool.That leaves the Fed primed to cut rates at their next meeting on Sept. 17-18, though just how much they will lower borrowing costs is still an open question. Investors think that a quarter-point reduction is most likely, but they see a half-point cut as a possibility.While the Fed is independent of politics, that move is likely to draw attention to the central bank. A reduction would come just weeks before November’s presidential election, and at a time when the Fed’s policies — especially its effort to fight inflation and its effect on the housing market through mortgage costs — have become a common topic of conversation on the campaign trail.The Fed has held interest rates steady at 5.3 percent, the highest level in more than two decades, since July 2023. At that level, interest rates are hefty enough to discourage many families and businesses from borrowing money, which weighs on demand and helps to cool the economy, making it harder for companies to lift prices.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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The plan does not appear to amount to government price controls. It also might not bring down grocery bills anytime soon.Vice President Kamala Harris threw her support behind a federal ban on price-gouging in the food and grocery industries last week. It was the first official economic policy proposal of her presidential campaign, and it was pitched as a direct response to the high price of putting food on the table in America today.“To combat high grocery costs, VP Harris to call for first-ever federal ban on corporate price-gouging,” the Harris campaign proclaimed in the subject line of a news release last week, ahead of a speech laying out the first planks of her economic agenda.It is still impossible to say, from publicly available details, what exactly the ban would do. Republicans have denounced the proposal as “communist,” warning that it would lead to the federal government setting prices in the marketplace. Former President Donald J. Trump has mocked the plan on social media as “SOVIET Style Price Controls.”Progressives have cheered the announcement as a crucial check on corporate greed, saying it could immediately benefit shoppers who have been stunned by a 20 percent rise in food costs since President Biden took office.But people familiar with Ms. Harris’s thinking on the ban now say it might not resemble either of those characterizations. The ban, they also suggest, might actually not do anything to bring down grocery prices right now. Those who spoke about the strategy behind the emerging policy did so on the condition of anonymity.Ms. Harris’s campaign has created the space for multiple interpretations, by declining to specify how that ban would work, when it would apply or what behaviors it would prohibit.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

The automaker said it would invest less in battery-powered cars and scrap a planned electric three-row sport utility vehicle.Ford Motor, which had once hoped to race ahead of other established automakers in electric vehicles, is again slowing the pace of its investments and new battery-powered models.The automaker said on Wednesday that it would delay the introduction of a new large electric pickup truck by about 18 months, to 2027, and scrap a three-row electric sport utility vehicle.The company is also reducing the amount of money it plans to spend on electric vehicles in an effort to stem multibillion-dollar losses on the technology, while adding plans to introduce a new electric delivery van in 2026. A new medium-size electric pickup is expected in 2027 as well, the company said.“The competitive nature of the market is changing globally,” Ford’s chief financial officer, John Lawler, said in a conference call. “That means these vehicles need to be profitable, and if not, we will pivot and adjust and make those tough decisions.”Mr. Lawler said investments in electric vehicles would now account for about 30 percent of the company’s capital budget, down from 40 percent. The company will take a charge of $400 million to account for the cost of manufacturing equipment it purchased for the production of the canceled electric S.U.V., and it may have up to $1.5 billion in additional expenses related to the project.“This is certainly not great news in terms of Ford’s progress on E.V.s,” said Sam Abuelsamid, a principal research analyst at Guidehouse Insights, a research firm. “Clearly they have not yet come to grips with cost-reduced E.V.s and getting more affordable products on the market.”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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PORTICELLO, Italy (Reuters) -Divers resumed a search on Wednesday for six missing people after British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch’s yacht sank off the coast of Sicily two days ago, although hopes dwindled for finding them alive. The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long (184-ft) superyacht, was carrying 22 people and was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it capsized during a fierce storm on Monday.Fifteen people survived and one crew member’s body was recovered. The six missing include Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter and Jonathan Bloomer, a non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International.Underwater inspection of the wreck resumed early on Wednesday, the fire department said on social media, having earlier described the operations as “long and complex”. The yacht was lying sideways at a depth of around 50 metres, giving divers 8-10 minutes to inspect it before having to resurface. Efforts have been hampered by “very confined” spaces inside the wreck, fire department spokesman Luca Cari said. The Italian coast guard said it was using a remotely operated vehicle to inspect the seabed and take underwater pictures and videos that may provide “useful and timely elements” for ongoing investigations into the disaster. MISSING PASSENGERSLynch, 59, is one of the UK’s best-known tech entrepreneurs and has been referred to as the country’s Bill Gates. He built the UK’s largest software firm, Autonomy, which was sold to HP (NYSE:HPQ) for $11 billion in 2011, after which the deal spectacularly unravelled with the U.S. tech giant accusing him of fraud, resulting in a lengthy trial. Lynch was acquitted on all charges by a jury in San Francisco in June. The other missing passengers were Bloomer’s wife Judy, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo. Morvillo represented Lynch in the San Francisco trial, while Bloomer was a character witness on his behalf.Experts have been at a loss to explain how a large luxury vessel, presumed to have top-class fittings and safety features, could have sunk within minutes, as recounted by witnesses. Another yacht anchored next to it was unharmed by the tempest.The Bayesian, which was owned by Lynch’s wife, was built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008 and last refitted in 2020. It had the world’s tallest aluminium mast, measuring 72 metres, according to its makers.BLACK SWAN EVENTIts captain James Cutfield, a 51-year-old New Zealander who survived the shipwreck, was a “very good sailor” and “very well respected” in the Mediterranean, his brother Mark told The New Zealand Herald. Matthew Schanck, chair of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, a UK-based non-profit organisation that trains sea rescuers, said the Bayesian was the victim of a “high impact” weather-related incident.”If it was a water spout, which it appears to be, it’s what I would class as like a ‘black swan’ event,” he told Reuters, referring to a rare and unpredictable phenomenon. He said he was confident the authorities would “get to the bottom” of what caused the shipwreck, thanks to the accounts of survivors, witnesses and examination of the sunken hull, which did not show any apparent signs of damage. More

BEIJING/LONDON (Reuters) -China has opened an anti-subsidy probe into imported dairy products from the European Union, stepping up tension with the bloc a day after Brussels released its revised draft decision related to tariffs on China-made electric vehicles.Below are details on the probe into EU dairy imports and other industries which are under investigation.DAIRYThe anti-subsidy investigation on dairy announced by China’s commerce ministry on Wednesday will focus on various types of cheeses, milks and creams intended for human consumption.It was prompted by a complaint submitted by the Dairy Association of China and the China Dairy Industry Association on July 29 on behalf of the domestic dairy industry.China will examine 20 subsidy schemes from across the 27-strong bloc, specifically those from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Ireland, and Romania, it said in a statement.The EU was China’s second-largest source of dairy products with at least 36% of the total value of imports in 2023, behind only New Zealand, according to Chinese customs data.The EU exported 1.7 billion euros ($1.84 billion) in dairy products to China in 2023, down from 2 billion in 2022, according to European Commission data. PORKThe anti-dumping investigation announced in June by China’s commerce ministry is focussing on pork intended for human consumption, such as fresh, cold and frozen whole cuts, as well as pig intestines, bladders and stomachs.It was prompted by a complaint submitted by the China Animal Husbandry Association on behalf of the domestic pork industry, the ministry said.Pork suppliers from South America, the U.S. and Russia could be among those gaining market share if Beijing restricts imports from the European Union.The EU accounts for more than half the roughly $6 billion worth of pork China imported in 2023, according to customs data, around a quarter of which was from Spain alone.Second- and third-ranking, the Netherlands and Denmark last year exported to China pork products worth $620 million and $550 million respectively. BRANDYBeijing in January opened an anti-dumping investigation on brandy imported from the EU, a step that appears to be mainly targeted at France. Almost all European brandy exported to China is made in France.The investigation will focus on brandy in containers of less than 200 litres (44 British gallons).PLASTIC In May, Beijing launched an anti-dumping probe into POM copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, imported from the EU, U.S., Japan and Taiwan. More