Job creation in the US has slowed to essentially zero, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday as the Fed released its latest economic projections, which included slightly higher economic growth than previously projected and little change to the unemployment rate.
Altogether, Powell said, central bankers see “a degree of stability” in the labor market.
“But the thing that I think a good number of people on the committee are concerned about is just the very, very low level of job creation,” Powell said in a press conference following the Fed’s decision to hold interest rates steady.
“Effectively, there’s zero net job creation in the private sector,” after accounting for revisions over the past six months, Powell said. “But actually, that looks like that’s about what the economy needs, in terms of dealing with very, very low — nonexistent, really — growth in the labor force, which of course we’ve never had in our history.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/powell-job-creation-is-near-zero-202637723.html
Troubling developments unfolded in the U.S. bond market on Thursday that had some investors drawing comparisons with the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.
The current problems start with rising oil prices as a result of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, which is raising the risk of stagflation and the prospect of a 2026 interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Brent crude the global oil benchmark, briefly blew past $119 a barrel on Thursday as attacks escalated on oil-and-gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. West Texas Intermediate crude-oil futures briefly crossed $100 a barrel.
But even as oil prices have spiked and stock prices come down, Treasurys, often seen as a haven during times of market unease, haven’t rallied on a continual basis. Instead, fears that the war in the Middle East could morph into a full-blown energy crisis pushed the policy-sensitive 2-year Treasury yield above the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate target on Thursday. Bond yields move inversely with prices and rise during selloffs.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ar-AA1Z0IQA
It’s called ‘private credit’ — and it could lead to big trouble on Wall Street
The risky lending business known as “private credit” is causing some very public problems for banks and investors — with implications that go far beyond Wall Street.
“Private credit” refers to an opaque but fast-growing corner of the financial world: When private-equity firms and other companies that aren’t banks lend money to businesses, such as software companies and auto lenders. Banks often are more reluctant to lend directly to these businesses, which they see as riskier bets — but they’re still exposed to them, because banks do lend to private credit firms.
The private credit sector has been growing for years and is now estimated to be a $3 trillion industry, according to Morgan Stanley. But its mounting problems are also becoming increasingly visible, especially after two companies backed by private credit companies declared bankruptcy in September. Those bankruptcies raised concerns about how carefully private credit firms were vetting the companies they lend to — and how they, and the banks and investors that finance them in turn, would get their money back.
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/19/nx-s1-5747128/private-credit-equity-jamie-dimon-wall-street
$166 a barrel? Middle East oil gives clue to where all prices could be headed if Iran war drags on
- Dubai crude oil prices surpassed $150 a barrel as transit in the Strait of Hormuz was crippled by the U.S.-Iran War.
- Brent crude prices have surged nearly 50% since the start of the war and currently trade around the $106 mark.
- Because of its proximity to the conflict, traders are looking at Dubai’s price as potential harbinger of what could be ahead for other crude benchmarks if the situation doesn’t improve.
Trump ally warns US economy not strong enough to cope with Iran war
One-time pick to lead key statistics body EJ Antoni says inflation was ‘worse than we thought’ even before conflict