Something unusual happened in financial markets Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pushed back on a March interest-rate cut: Investors appear to be bracing for a “policy mistake” by the central bank. U.S. stocks sold off on Wednesday, with equity indexes hitting their lowest levels of the session after…

(Reuters) -Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen have stepped up attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, impacting a shipping route vital to East-West trade. In response, some shipping companies have instructed vessels to instead sail around southern Africa, a slower and therefore more expensive route. The U.S. and Britain launched…

Former President Donald Trump has an advantage over President Joe Biden in the U.S. states that are likely to decide the 2024 White House race, according to a poll released Wednesday. Trump gets 48% support on average among swing-state voters, compared with 42% for Biden, according to the Bloomberg News-Morning…

By Nikunj Ohri NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s annual retail inflation rose at the fastest pace in four months in December, driven by a rise in prices of some food items, raising expectations that the central bank will stay away from interest rate cuts for some time. Annual retail inflation rose…

The numbers: The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits at the end of January rose to a nearly three-month high of 224,000, possibly a sign of some softening in what’s been an incredibly strong labor market. Initial jobless claims increased by 9,000 in the seven days ended Jan.…

By Emma-Victoria Farr FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A backlog of incomplete deals and an uncertain economic outlook mean German dealmakers are predicting a quiet first quarter and a relative fee famine until 2025 in Europe’s biggest economy. Financial and legal advisers point to a darker macroeconomic outlook for Germany, which saw…

The numbers: A closely watched index that measures U.S. manufacturing activity rose to 49.1% in January from 47.1% in the prior month, according to the Institute for Supply Management on Thursday. That is the highest level since October. Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal had forecast the index to…

(Reuters) – Traders on Friday priced in a bigger chance that the Federal Reserve will deliver more monetary policy easing this year after a U.S. government report pointed to less inflation in the wholesale pipeline than economists had anticipated.    Futures contracts that settle to the Fed’s target for the…

A steadily growing U.S. economy likely generated close to 200,000 new jobs in the first month of the new year, Wall Street pros say, but the labor market has cooled off a bit since last year. Here’s what to watch in the January employment report due Friday morning. The forecast…

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Recent inflation data broadly confirmed current thinking at the European Central Bank, meaning interest rate cuts are not a near-term topic of debate, chief ECB economist Philip Lane said on Friday. Euro zone inflation jumped as expected last month, rising to 2.9% from 2.4% in November and…