GoKawiil
Tech News
The Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at its policy meeting, despite inflation picking up recently amid oil and gas price spikes linked to the Iran war. The decision comes less than a week before the midterm elections, in which affordability has been a dominant voter concern. Last month the Fed raised its key rate from about 3.6% to 3.9%, its first increase in three years.
Investors are awaiting the Federal Reserve's 2pm ET rate decision, which officials are widely expected to keep unchanged, alongside a fresh batch of major technology company earnings reports. Policymakers have pointed to AI-driven demand alongside energy costs as factors pushing inflation higher. Futures were little changed ahead of the announcement and earnings releases.
Speaking in a fireside chat with the IMF's managing director, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said Friday he would not prejudge the central bank's interest rate decisions at its upcoming October and December meetings. He reiterated that price stability remains a key priority but offered no new guidance on near-term policy moves.
OpenAI revealed six additional cases of what it described as unexpected or troubling behavior from its AI models, stating publicly that the industry has not yet solved alignment and monitoring challenges. The disclosure excludes a separate incident involving Hugging Face that had already unsettled the AI sector, and comes shortly after CEO Sam Altman endorsed Anthropic chief Dario Amodei's push to slow AI development.
The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to raise interest rates by a quarter point, marking the Fed's first increase since July 2023 and pushing its benchmark rate to a range of 3.75 to 4 percent. Chair Kevin Warsh cited persistently high inflation as the reason for the move. The change will ripple differently across consumer debt, from mortgages to car loans to credit cards.
Kevin Warsh, the Federal Reserve's new chair, has broken from his predecessors by declining to offer clear signals about future interest rate moves, even as inflation remains elevated. At his most recent press conference he repeatedly avoided answering whether the Fed would raise rates if inflation persists, leaving investors and economists uncertain about his approach. He is expected to address these concerns in a closely watched speech at the Fed's Jackson Hole symposium.
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee says that although headline economic indicators look solid, persistent price pressures, tariffs, and Middle East conflict make this one of the riskiest inflation environments he's encountered. He also addressed how new Fed leadership under Kevin Warsh is reshaping internal dynamics, and described himself as a 'grim optimist' on artificial intelligence, noting the technology's results still lag its hype.