Economy and Jobs

Monthly inflation picked up slightly in April, a month when businesses were yanked back and forth as they tried to adjust to President Trump’s unpredictable trade policies.

The consumer-price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in April, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That matched the forecasts of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. However, it was a turnaround from March, when month-over-month prices fell 0.1%.

Inflation rose slightly in April and remained above the Federal Reserve's target rate as the economic impact of higher tariffs is expected to impact consumer prices in the coming months.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday said that the consumer price index (CPI) – a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – rose 0.2% in April compared with last month, while it was up 2.3% on an annual basis. The annual inflation rate was the lowest since February 2021.

 Inflation cooled for the third straight month in April even after some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs took effect, though economists and many business owners expect inflation will climb in the coming months.

Consumer prices rose 2.3% in April from a year ago, the Labor Department said Tuesday, down from 2.4% in March and the smallest increase in more than four years. On a monthly basis, prices rose modestly, increasing 0.2% from March to April after falling 0.1% the previous month, the first drop in five years.

The Biden administration claimed to have added almost 400,000 jobs from July through September of last year, but new data released this week suggest none of those jobs ever existed. Despite constantly gaslighting by the mainstream media, Americans knew the economy was in poor shape and these latest numbers prove it.

Month after month, the government bean-counters under former-president Biden published overly optimistic estimates for everything from job growth to the size of the economy, only to have those numbers routinely—and quietly—revised down later.

India and Pakistan have accused each other of "violations" hours after the two nations said they had agreed to a ceasefire following days of cross-border military strikes.

After sounds of explosions were heard in Indian-administered Kashmir, India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said there had been "repeated violations of the understanding we arrived at".

A short while later, Pakistan's foreign ministry said it remained "committed to faithful implementation of a ceasefire...notwithstanding the violations being committed by India in some areas".

The federal human resources agency at the heart of billionaire Elon Musk's efforts to slash the federal workforce is poised to roll out software to speed layoffs across the U.S. government, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, just weeks after President Donald Trump intensified calls for lower borrowing costs and voiced eagerness about the potential "termination" of Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at 4.3 percent on Wednesday, defying pressure from President Donald Trump to lower borrowing costs.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced that it will leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged as policymakers continue to monitor inflation and the labor market amid elevated levels of economic uncertainty.

President Trump is changing his tune on the economy, suggesting that Americans should buy less and will probably pay more and bear the brunt of an uncertain economic landscape as his wide-ranging tariff policy takes effect.

Trump and his economic team have for weeks said the tariffs would result in only short-term pain and that the tumult in the stock market would eventually level out.