Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, affirmed President-elect Trump’s decision to appoint Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense on Wednesday. “Pete served 20 years. He was awarded the Bronze Star twice in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s somebody that I got to know when he was running Concerned…

But if inflation continues to inch upward, the central bank may decide it needs to leave rates high to avoid a repeat of runaway inflation. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 before slowly making its way back down closer to the Fed's target range of 2%.

Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that the Federal Reserve will likely cut its key interest rate slowly and deliberately in the coming months, in part because inflation has shown signs of persistence and the Fed's officials want to see where it heads next.