Finance

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that the central bank can wait to see how President Donald Trump’s aggressive policy actions play out before it moves again on interest rates.
“We do not need to be in a hurry, and are well positioned to wait for greater clarity,” the central bank chief said at a policy forum in New York.

Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, speaks during the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business Monetary Policy Forum in New York, US, on Friday, March 7, 2025. 
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

NEW YORK — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that the central bank can wait to see how President Donald Trump’s aggressive policy actions play out before it moves again on interest rates.
With markets nervous over Trump’s proposals for tariffs and other issues, Powell reiterated statements he and his colleagues have made recently counseling patience on monetary policy amid the high level of uncertainty.

The White House “is in the process of implementing significant policy changes in four distinct areas: trade, immigration, fiscal policy, and regulation,” he said in a speech for the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum. “It is the net effect of these policy changes that will matter for the economy and for the path of monetary policy.”
Noting that “uncertainty around the changes and their likely effects remains high” Powell said the Fed is “focused on separating the signal from the noise as the outlook evolves. We do not need to be in a hurry, and are well positioned to wait for greater clarity.”
The comments seem at least somewhat at odds with growing market expectations for interest rate cuts this year.

As markets have been roiled by Trump’s shifting positions on his agenda — specifically his tariff plans — traders have priced in the equivalent of three quarter percentage point reductions by the end of the year, starting in June, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch gauge.
However, Powell’s comments indicate that the Fed will be in a wait-and-see mode before mapping out further policy easing.

“Policy is not on a preset course,” he said. “Our current policy stance is well positioned to deal with the risks and uncertainties that we face in pursuing both sides of our dual mandate.”
The policy forum is sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Booth School’s Clark Center for Global Markets and included multiple Fed officials in the audience. Most central bank policymakers lately have said they expect the economy to hold up and inflation to fall back to the Fed’s 2% goal, with the rate climate still unclear as Trump’s policy comes more clearly into view.
In his assessment, Powell also spoke in mostly positive terms about the macro environment, saying the U.S. is in “a good place” with a “solid labor market” and inflation moving back to target.
However, he did note that recent sentiment surveys showed misgivings about the path of inflation, largely a product of the Trump tariff talk. The Fed’s preferred gauge showed 12-month inflation running at a 2.5% rate, or 2.6% when excluding food and energy.
“The path to sustainably returning inflation to our target has been bumpy, and we expect that to continue,” Powell said.
Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, who was not at the forum, said in a speech delivered Friday in Portugal that she sees “important upside risks for inflation” and said that “it could be appropriate to continue holding the policy rate at its current level for some time.”
The remarks also came the same day that the Labor Department reported a gain of 151,000 in nonfarm payrolls for February. Though the total was slightly below market expectations, Powell said the report is more evidence that “the labor market is solid and broadly in balance.”
“Wages are growing faster than inflation, and at a more sustainable pace than earlier in the pandemic recovery,” he said.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in February and were up 4% on an annual basis. The jobs report also indicated that the unemployment rate edged higher to 4.1% as household employment dipped.

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Sen. Richard Blumenthal this week pressed Visa for detailed plans and documents related to its deal to provide payments services to Elon Musk’s social media site X.
Blumenthal pointed to Musk’s role in hobbling the CFPB as among the reasons for the request, according to a letter obtained by CNBC.
“Visa stands to take advantage of the deep conflicts of interest and unscrupulous conduct of its new business partner,” Blumenthal wrote.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the January 6th insurrection, in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 2, 2021.
Graeme Jennings | Pool via Reuters

Sen. Richard Blumenthal this week pressed Visa for detailed plans and documents related to its deal to provide payments services to Elon Musk’s social media site, X, as it prepares to launch a digital wallet.
Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut and the ranking member of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, pointed to Musk’s role in hobbling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the consumer watchdog that would be a key regulator of the X Money service — as among the reasons for the information request, according to a March 6 letter obtained by CNBC.

“Given the unique position of X Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Elon Musk as leader of the Department of Government Efficiency and his recent role in gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau … Visa stands to take advantage of the deep conflicts of interest and unscrupulous conduct of its new business partner,” Blumenthal wrote.
The Senate request is one of the first signs of scrutiny on Visa, which runs the world’s largest credit card network, after a late January announcement that it had agreed to power peer-to-peer payments on X. Days after the deal was disclosed, operatives from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gained access to CFPB data systems, leading to accusations that Musk wanted to kneecap a future regulator and that he could steal trade secrets of competitors to his nascent X Money service.
The letter, addressed to Visa CEO Ryan McInerney, also cast doubts about whether a social media network known for “bots, scams and hate speech” would be able to prevent scams and fraud from proliferating on the site. Musk purchased the site in 2022, when it was known as Twitter.
“These concerns raise questions about X’s ability to protect consumers from fraud and scams as it ventures into the financial sector,” Blumenthal wrote.
“As the largest payment processor in the world, Visa has a legal responsibility to ensure its network is free of financial crime such as scams and fraud, money-laundering, terrorist financing, and more,” he said.

Blumenthal asked for a detailed description of Visa’s plans to enable payments on X, including the business model of the service and Visa’s role in compliance with regulatory requirements around money laundering and illicit remittances.
He also pressed Visa for “all records” related to the deal and communications between X, Visa, DOGE and CFPB personnel.
“We are currently reviewing the letter and will respond appropriately,” a Visa spokesman said in a statement.
A representative for X didn’t immediately have comment. More

A new documentary titled “Tune Out The Noise” brings together some of the academic heavyweights whose work reshaped the financial industry and helped lower costs for all investors.
The film, made by Academy Award-winning documentarian Errol Morris, chronicles the rise of academic finance in the middle of the twentieth century and how it led to a boom in passive investing and to the creation of Dimensional Fund Advisors, which now has more than $700 billion in assets under management.

Morris and David Booth, Dimensional chairman and the namesake of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, spoke to CNBC’s Bob Pisani on Thursday ahead of the film’s New York premier.
“It’s really about how markets work and how different that is from people’s intuition or perception,” Booth told Pisani.
In addition to Booth and some Dimensional executives, the film features interviews with many of the biggest names in financial academia, including Myron Scholes, Robert Merton, Eugene Fama and Kenneth French.
The work of those academics, who have all had roles at Dimensional over the years, helped push the investment world away from traditional stock picking and toward passive, low-cost strategies. That trend extends beyond Dimensional, with firms like Vanguard using those insights to build their own businesses.
“People are getting a much better deal now than when I started in 1971,” Booth said.

Morris’ previous work includes “The Fog of War,” which won the Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2004, as well as “The Thin Blue Line.”
“One of the reasons I became a filmmaker, or a documentary filmmaker, whatever you want to call it, is I like to hear people telling stories. And this is filled with it,” Morris said of his new film. More

China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi struck a more conciliatory tone on U.S. relations during a high-profile press conference on Friday.
While Wang said the U.S. should not impose “arbitrary tariffs” or return goodwill with hostility, he emphasized that the two countries would both be part of the world for a long time, requiring “peaceful coexistence.”
His comments came shortly after China hit back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs.

Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi speaks during the 2023 Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 18, 2023.
Johannes Simon | Getty Images News | Getty Images

BEIJING — China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi struck a more conciliatory tone on U.S. relations during a high-profile press conference on Friday, in contrast to the ministry’s more aggressive language earlier in the week.
While Wang said the U.S. should not impose “arbitrary tariffs” or return goodwill with hostility, he emphasized that the two countries would both be part of the world for a long time, requiring “peaceful coexistence.”

“Given the extensive common interests and broad space for cooperation, it is fully possible for China and the U.S. to become partners helping each other succeed,” Wang said in Mandarin, via an official translation.
He spent much of the roughly 90-minute press conference talking about China’s efforts to improve relations with other countries and supporting the interests of non-Western nations.
Wang is also director of the office for foreign affairs within the Communist Party of China’s central commission, making him the country’s most senior diplomat. He was speaking to reporters during China’s annual parliamentary meeting, known as the “Two Sessions.”
His comments came shortly after China hit back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs.
“If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. said in a post Wednesday on X.

Tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated in the last several days. Trump earlier this week imposed yet another 10% of tariffs on Chinese goods, to which Beijing retaliated with targeted duties on U.S. agricultural products and restrictions on several U.S. companies.
Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao indicated to reporters Thursday that Beijing was willing to meet with the U.S. for talks on trade.

Russia-Ukraine war

Wang maintained on Friday that Beijing wants to play a constructive role in achieving “lasting peace” in the Russia-Ukraine war, while stating that China’s friendship with Moscow would not change.
Wang advocated for a two-state solution around Gaza and said the current situation only marked halfway progress toward such a resolution.
China’s foreign minister also said “unjustified external suppression” has not stopped Chinese technological development, and cast Beijing as willing to share its tech with other countries rather than keep it to itself.
In a proposed budget released this week for government spending this year, China plans to increase spending on diplomatic endeavors by 8.4% versus a 6.6% increase last year. More

Mar 6th 2025 <!–>Donald Trump’s tariffs are roiling the global trading system. But the president’s tariff-mania is far from unprecedented in American history. The last time tariffs of this scale were in place was after the passage of the Tariff Act of 1930, better known as the Smoot-Hawley tariff. The bill sparked a trade war […] More

The capital of Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries, runs on aid. A city built in the 1970s by the World Bank, Lilongwe’s straight streets are filled with charities, development agencies and government offices. Informal villages house cooks and cleaners for foreign officials; the entrance to each is marked with the flag of its national sponsor. Over the past five decades, policymakers have reached a division of labour: Britain funds schools, Japan backs energy projects, Europe supports agriculture and Ireland nurtures a cottage industry of justice activists. In the health ministry, maintained with Chinese money, doors are labelled by donor, not department. Many read “USAID”. More

Canada’s business press remained sanguine. Belligerent statements by the American president, one Toronto-based newspaper wrote, were mere campaign rhetoric; he would ultimately decide against tariffs that might “arouse resentment in Canada”. Such confidence turned out to be gravely misplaced. In 1930 Herbert Hoover signed into law the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariffs, named after their congressional sponsors. The average levy on American imports increased from 40% in 1929 to 60% by 1932, and the global trade system unravelled. More

China has more room to act on fiscal policy amid domestic and external uncertainties, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an told reporters on Thursday.
China on Wednesday announced it was raising its on-budget deficit to 4% of the country’s gross domestic product — the highest since at least 2010.
“China has delivered a pro-growth message here at the [National People’s Congress], in line with expectations,” said Aaron Costello, head of Asia at Cambridge Associates.

China’s Minister of Finance Lan Fo’an speaks during a press conference in Beijing on Nov. 8, 2024. 
Adek Berry | Afp | Getty Images

BEIJING — China has more room to act on fiscal policy amid domestic and external uncertainties, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an told reporters on Thursday.
He was responding to a question during China’s “Two Sessions” annual parliamentary meeting about the country’s plans for proactive fiscal policy this year. The gathering this year comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has raised tariffs on Chinese goods for the second time in roughly a month. Beijing has responded to Washington’s latest levies with targeted duties and restrictions on U.S. companies.

China on Wednesday announced it was raising its on-budget deficit to 4% of the country’s gross domestic product — the highest since at least 2010.
The government also plans to issue 1.3 trillion yuan ($178.9 billion) in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2025, marking a 300 billion yuan hike from last year. The increased amount is primarily set to support the consumer trade-in program.
China said it aims to issue 4.4 trillion yuan of local government special-purpose bonds this year — or a 500 billion yuan increase from last year — to help ease the financial strains of local authorities.

China has made spurring consumption its top priority for the year ahead, according to a government work report shared Wednesday. Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner, on Thursday said that a more detailed plan for boosting consumption would be released soon.
The country on Wednesday also said it would target a GDP increase of around 5% this year, while lowering its inflation target to 2% — the lowest in around 20 years.

“China has delivered a pro-growth message here at the [National People’s Congress], in line with expectations,” said Aaron Costello, head of Asia at Cambridge Associates. The NPC is part of the “Two Sessions” meeting.
Costello noted that, beyond specific stimulus programs, the bigger issue facing China has been low business and consumer sentiment. He pointed to encouraging signals such as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with many tech entrepreneurs last month to encourage private business growth.

Rising trade tensions

Officials speaking on Wednesday and Thursday have emphasized that it will take hard work for China to reach its 5% target. China’s economy grew by 5% last year, but benefitted from strong exports that offset lackluster consumption and the drag from domestic real estate.
When asked about U.S. trade tensions, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao reiterated Beijing’s strong language on the trade tensions, but called for the two sides to meet soon for discussions.
Other officials speaking Thursday did not name U.S. trade dealings explicitly, but a few made uncharacteristic public allusions to the White House’s growing restrictions on China. The U.S. has blacklisted several major Chinese tech companies and limited their access advanced semiconductors for training artificial intelligence models.
“The more others pressure us, block us, it will only push us to innovate independently,” Zheng said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. He spoke while talking up China’s exports of integrated circuits and robotic development.
When laying out measures to support technological development, the head of China’s central bank, Pan Gongsheng, said that, while the country welcomed foreign investors, it “opposed the establishment of improper investment barriers.” More