Category: 3. Business

(Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve’s annual gathering in the Rocky Mountains is usually a time for central bankers and their wonky friends to kick back, discuss a few complicated economic topics and then go for a hike in the shadow of Grand Teton.

This year, the Fed’s Jackson Hole symposium, which wrapped up Saturday, was at times a tense affair and drove home how difficult the path ahead is for the US central bank.

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On Friday, Chair Jerome Powell used his keynote speech to signal the Fed is headed for an interest-rate cut as soon as its next policy meeting in September. Yet there are clear divisions among policymakers over whether that’s the right call. Powell, himself, noted the economy has handed Fed officials a “challenging situation.”

Policymakers are grappling with inflation that’s still above their 2% goal — and rising — and a labor market that’s showing signs of weakness. That unnerving reality, which pulls policy in opposite directions, is made worse by a high degree of uncertainty about how each of those factors will evolve over the coming months.

“We’re getting some cross-currents and it’s in a difficult environment,” Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said in an interview on the sidelines of the conference. “I always say the hardest job the central bank has is to get the timing right at moments of transition.”

The conference also highlighted the political pressures weighing on the Fed. Those are likely to intensify in coming months as President Donald Trump looks to put his stamp on what may be the most prominent federal institution to have so far escaped his overhaul attempts.

As Powell delivered his speech Friday morning, Trump said he would fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook if she didn’t resign over recent allegations that she committed mortgage fraud. It’s the latest attempt by the administration to pressure the Fed from multiple angles as Trump relentlessly pushes for lower interest rates.

Security for the event was noticeably heightened compared to recent years, adding to the tension at the gathering. Officers from the Fed Police, US Park Police and Teton County Sheriff’s Office, some in military-style fatigues and carrying weapons, were a constant presence.

Earlier Friday morning, officers had to remove one person, the Trump-backer and Fed gadfly James Fishback, after he confronted Cook in the lobby of the lodge and shouted questions about the mortgage controversy.

Rate Path

Powell, in what was likely his final Jackson Hole speech at the helm of the Fed, detailed the cloudy signals coming from the economy.

While the effect of tariffs on prices is now visible, there are still questions about whether that will reignite inflation in a more persistent way, he said. He called the labor market’s current status — with both falling demand for, and declining supply of workers — “curious.”

Even with those uncertainties, Powell opened the door to a rate cut at the Fed’s Sept. 16-17 meeting, though it wasn’t as clear a signal as at last year’s conference. Then, the labor market was deteriorating but inflation worries had receded, and many policymakers shared a desire to cut soon. The backing is not nearly as strong this year.

Recent data have shown inflation has stalled above the Fed’s 2% goal, with some measures indicating that price pressures may be spilling over to products and services not directly impacted by tariffs. Meantime, while hiring has slowed significantly over the summer, other labor market indicators, like the low level of unemployment, paint a more stable picture.

Without much clarity on how the economy will unfold, disagreements over how to proceed are festering among policymakers. Already, two governors dissented at the Fed’s July meeting, when officials didn’t cut rates. If they do cut in September, others may dissent in the opposite direction.

Policy disagreements could grow in the coming months as Trump names new officials to vacancies at the Fed and Powell’s term as chair ends in May.

Under Pressure

The discord comes at a time when the central bank is facing intense scrutiny from the White House. The topic seeped into conversations over coffee, during meals and in between sessions, even if there wasn’t much outright discussion of it during official conference proceedings.

Karen Dynan, an economics professor at Harvard University and frequent attendee of the conference, said she wasn’t surprised that central bankers didn’t want to wade into conversations about politics. Still, she said the conference set an example of how big-picture economic issues should be approached.

“This year it feels particularly meaningful that we have a bunch of papers that are grounded in good economics done by people who are prominent experts,” Dynan said. “These are not problems that can be solved by thinking about one’s intuition or talking to just a circle of people around you — you really need this sort of expertise.”

A New Framework

One issue that received less attention was the new framework Powell unveiled in his speech.

The document, which will guide policymakers as they pursue their inflation and employment goals, is the culmination of a months-long review of the previous one, implemented in 2020. The new strategy removes some of the language that more narrowly focused on the pre-pandemic challenge of persistently low inflation.

It’s a return to basics and sets the Fed up to more clearly focus on its mandates of maximum employment and stable prices, said Carolin Pflueger, associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

In his remarks, Powell “emphasized that his job is inflation and unemployment, and that can only be achieved within an independent Fed,” Pfleuger said. “I think people appreciate that.”

Global Impact

That appreciation became apparent when Powell was greeted Friday morning with a standing ovation from economists and policymakers from around the world — and not for the first time this year.

For them Fed independence is not only a matter of principle but also practicality, since decisions taken in Washington inevitably come with consequences that spread far beyond.

The euro strengthened by 1% against the dollar following Powell’s remarks, adding downside risks to euro-area inflation that’s already seen falling to 1.6% next year.

“If a cut does come and reflects slower US growth, that probably means slower growth for them given the size of the US,” Maurice Obstfeld, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said of the euro area and other economies.

–With assistance from Matthew Boesler.

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(Reuters) -HSBC’s Swiss private bank has launched a cull of more than 1,000 wealthy Middle Eastern clients, as it faces scrutiny from regulators over high-risk customers, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The bank will terminate its relationships with several customers from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon and Egypt, many of whom have assets of more than $100 million, the FT said, citing people familiar with the matter.

In a statement to Reuters, HSBC referred to plans announced in October last year to reshape the group and added: “As part of this, we are evolving the strategic focus of our Swiss Private Bank.” It gave no further detail about any client accounts being closed.

In a separate emailed statement to Reuters, Barry O’Byrne, CEO of International Wealth and Premier Banking at HSBC, said the bank continued to have an “absolute commitment” to both its Middle East and Swiss Wealth businesses.

He said Switzerland plays a key role in how it supports clients globally – “it’s one of our core wealth hubs”.

The FT said HSBC’s Swiss private bank had informed the affected clients they will no longer be able to use its services, and will send out letters advising them to move their accounts elsewhere in the coming months.

Bloomberg News had on Saturday reported that HSBC’s Swiss private bank would cut 1,000 Middle East clients.

Swiss financial watchdog FINMA said in 2024 that the HSBC unit had breached its obligations in the prevention of money laundering in connection with two politically exposed persons.

The regulator found that suspicious transactions were carried out involving prominent personalities between 2002 and 2015 with a total value of $300 million.

HSBC had said last month that law enforcement authorities in Switzerland and France were in the early stages of investigating its Private Bank (Suisse) SA unit in connection with alleged money laundering offences in respect of two historical banking relationships.

(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur and Dave Graham; Editing by Jan Harvey and David Holmes)

A jump in the share of foreign-born workers after the pandemic helped Europe bring inflation down without sharply slower growth, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Saturday.

The treatment of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) has advanced significantly in recent years, largely driven by the development of novel targeted therapies such as Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors. However, despite these advances, significant challenges and unmet needs persist in the clinical management of this disease.

Tycel Phillips, MD, an associate professor in the Division of Lymphoma, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope, explored the current clinical landscape and the pressing questions that are being addressed in ongoing research. Phillips outlined a 2-pronged approach to these challenges, focusing first on the need for a universally accepted definition of high-risk MCL. He highlights the importance of accurately identifying patients with aggressive disease characteristics, such as blastoid morphology, high Ki-67 proliferation rates, and TP53 mutations, to better guide therapeutic decisions. He then addresses the critical issue of what to do when BTK inhibitors fail, a situation that leaves many patients with limited treatment options.

Phillips concluded with the urgent need for more accessible, “off-the-shelf” therapies to improve outcomes for patients who relapse or are unable to access CAR T-cell therapy.

Transcript:

The biggest [challenge to research] is a 2-prong [approach]. One is with patients who are high-risk. One of the issues that has come up is the accurate definition of patients with high-risk mantle cell lymphoma. That is a focus moving forward that will be tackled sooner than later, to get a universal definition of what is considered high-risk, and then, thereafter, the best way to manage these patients. If we look at most of the clinical trials that have been reported out in the last couple of years, we see a vast majority of the patients are responding to treatments and are having durable responses, but there is a subset of patients who unfortunately seem to be more difficult to treat and are not necessarily having the great responses. Patients with blastoid or pleomorphic morphology, there’s a lot of debates and discussions about the proliferation rate, how fast the cancer cells are growing. The Ki-67 and additionally, we discuss, TP53 mutations and how they are impacting clinical care. Having an accurate definition and then conducting more clinical research specifically focused on trying to help these patients will be important.

In certain situations, we have very effective treatments, such as Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors, or BTK inhibitors. What do we do when these drugs fail the patient? Because when the patients unfortunately stop responding to these medications, it presents a conundrum, because historically, we have seen there are few treatments that can help patients who have lost response to BTK inhibitors. Outside of CAR T-cell therapy and pirtobrutinib [Jaypirca], we do not have any other FDA-approved options. Two of the CAR T-cell therapies appear to be a much more durable response for patients [where a BTK inhibitor fails them]. We need more treatments to help support patients when [a BTK inhibitor fails them], especially those who cannot afford to or have a reason why they cannot get to the CAR T-cell center. We need more options available in community situations to help these patients, so we can improve their overall survival.

By Bill Peters

Earnings Watch: Nvidia reports, as do retailers like Gap and Ulta Beauty

People attend a Nvidia production preview exhibition in Taipei on May 21, 2025.

Wall Street, collectively, may be wondering about the future growth prospects of the Magnificent Seven stocks, as they invest in artificial intelligence but burn cash in the process and question whether business and customers are willing to pay for the technology.

But as artificial-intelligence chipmaker Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) prepares to report quarterly results on Wednesday – amid questions about its ability to meet demand and drama between the U.S. and China – analysts keep getting more bullish.

As MarketWatch reported last week, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald said AI demand was “seemingly insatiable,” as its big-tech customers heap potentially hundreds of billions into building out the technology and its infrastructure. But as the focus shifts to so-called AI inference – or making new observations or predictions when presented with data – Wall Street may have questions, as they have in the past, about whether Nvidia can supply enough chips to meet that demand.

Wall Street’s focus will also likely center on China, where things have gotten a bit messy, as the two nations try to elbow each other out of the AI race and as each claim the other represents a security threat.

Nvidia said last month that the U.S. would allow the company to sell its less-sophisticated H20 AI chips – made specifically for China to comply with export controls – to the nation, after the U.S. effectively banned them in the spring. But the U.S., as part of a recent deal, will also get 15% of Nvidia’s AI chip sales from China to get the license to sell there.

Meanwhile, China has discouraged businesses there from using Nvidia’s chips, with state media claiming they were a security risk, according to reports. The Information reported that Nvidia, in turn, ordered a stop to the production of H20 chips.

Elsewhere, after Walmart Inc. put up a rare profit miss amid lofty expectations and Target’s investors fled over its new CEO pick, smaller retailers report quarterly results this week. Expectations are low. The prevalence of the usual suspects for why – tariff anxieties, higher costs of living, the flight to value, weaker clothing and home-goods demand, competition in prestige beauty – is still high.

This week, we’ll get reports from Ulta Beauty Inc. (ULTA), Gap Inc.(GAP), Kohls Corp. (KSS), Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM), Victoria’s Secret & Co. (VSCO) and Urban Outfitters (URBN). Bath & Body Works Inc. (BBWI), Best Buy Co Inc. (BBY), Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (DKS) and Petco Health and Wellness Co. Inc. (WOOF), also report.

Elsewhere, results are due from discounters Burlington Stores Inc. (BURL), Dollar General Corp. (DG), Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Holdings Inc. (OLLI), as the bargain hunt remains alive and well but low-income shoppers struggle more with inflation.

Still, Deborah Weinswig, chief executive of Coresight Research, said that the second-quarter results from retailers so far – Home Depot Inc. (HD) and Lowe’s Cos. (LOW) also reported last week – showed that consumers were in better shape than expected. Results for the smaller retailers this week, she said, would be all about consumer traffic.

Those retailers might not have the size and bargaining power of Walmart, and some have struggled to keep up with ever-accelerating fashion cycles. But she said that they still have the sourcing expertise and organizational makeup to pivot quickly when needed.

However, value and convenience, as they have for the past few years, continue to reign supreme. Chances that Walmart took on technology investments in the prior decade continue to help it widen its lead over its other retail rivals, raising questions about what place Target and smaller retailers have in the current shopping landscape.

“Is part of the issue that they’re always taking the safest path? Could be,” Weinswig said of Target. “That’s how they kind of ended up where they are versus Walmart.”

-Bill Peters

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A view of the world’s first ultra-tier zero-carbon building in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province on August 24, 2025. Photo: Screenshot of CMG’s vedio

The world’s first ultra-tier zero-carbon building was inaugurated in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province on Sunday, marking new progress in China’s zero-carbon architectural innovation. In addition to photovoltaic (PV) power generation, the building is also able to discharge power through recycled batteries and new-energy vehicles, CCTV News reported.

The building is 117 meters tall and has 23 office floors that consume about 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Unlike traditional rooftop PV systems, three sides of the building have been equipped with building-integrated photovoltaic glass curtain walls, which provide about 25 percent of green energy to the building and reduce carbon emissions by about 500 tons a year, according to the report.

At its base, 14 recycled automotive batteries serve as a “hidden energy reservoir.” Through charging and discharging, these batteries not only store surplus PV energy but also store clean energy that couldn’t be consumed in the grid at rates as low as 0.22 yuan ($0.03) per kilowatt-hour for use during peak demand or on cloudy days, it said.

A digital ecosystem underpins the building’s operations, integrating traditional substations, distribution stations, and other critical infrastructure into a unified system to achieve 100 percent green energy self-sufficiency.

Nearly 24,000 micro-sensors have replaced conventional switches, enabling automated control of lighting, air conditioners, and elevators. For instance, with facial recognition, the system can instantly detect a person’s destination floor and immediately dispatch the nearest available elevator, according to the report.

“Through the consumption of green power, we can reduce carbon emissions by approximately 2,500 tons annually. Digitalization has significantly lowered the building’s investment costs by 20-30 percent, improved operational efficiency by 30 percent, and reduced energy consumption costs by roughly 30 percent,” said Yu Dexiang, chairman of Teld New Energy.

Zhao Yue, director of the Energy Conservation and Green Energy Research Office of the China Center for Information Industry Development, said that the ultra-tier zero-carbon building is not only a structure but also a complete energy ecosystem.
“It has achieved 100 percent self-sufficiency in green power, established a new model for zero-carbon buildings, addressed the recycling challenges of power batteries, and through standardized centralized management, it has mitigated the environmental risks linked to decentralized battery disposal,” Zhao said.

China’s green transition continued to drive the development of renewable energy, which accounted for 91.5 percent of its total newly installed power capacity in the first half of 2025, according to data released by the National Energy Administration on July 31.

As of the end of June, the cumulative installed capacity of the country’s renewable energy reached 2.16 billion kilowatts, up 30.6 percent year-on-year and representing 59.2 percent of the country’s total installed power capacity, the data showed.

Global Times

The Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT) has reduced the Hyundai Nishat penalty from Rs25 million to Rs5 million while upholding the Competition Commission of Pakistan’s (CCP) ruling in a deceptive marketing case linked to the 2020 launch of the Hyundai Tucson SUV.

The case dates back to August 2020, when Hyundai Nishat Motors held a Facebook Live event announcing “introductory prices” of Rs4,899,000 for the GLS/FWD variant and Rs5,399,000 for the ULTIMATE/AWD model of the Hyundai Tucson. However, the investigation revealed that these prices were valid for less than 24 hours and the limited-time disclaimer was not clearly communicated to potential buyers.

The CCP found that Hyundai Nishat increased the vehicle prices by Rs200,000 after the brief booking period and also removed the original pricing details from its website and social media platforms. According to the regulator, this amounted to “bait advertising” and violated Section 10 of the Competition Act, 2010.

The CCP issued its order in April 2025, imposing a penalty of Rs25 million on the company. Hyundai Nishat later challenged the decision before the Tribunal. After reviewing the case, the Tribunal agreed that the marketing practices were misleading but ruled to reduce the Hyundai Nishat penalty to Rs5 million.

The CCP also highlighted that Hyundai adopts more transparent advertising practices in other countries and emphasized that Pakistani consumers should be provided with the same standards of fair marketing.