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Have gas prices already peaked this year?
Great news for drivers: Despite geopolitical tensions and OPEC production cuts, some signs suggest the highest gas prices could already be in the rearview.
US stocks were mixed on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced it kept interest rates unchanged
• It was also another high profile day for corporate earnings, with Amazon, Pinterest, and Pfizer shares climbing higher on the back of their results.
• In the labor market, the ADP employment report showed private sector employers added 192,000 jobs in April, more than expected, led by the leisure and hospitality sector. The ADP report is considered a bellwether for the labor market even though it is not correlated with the government’s jobs report that’s due Friday.
What to be on the lookout for today
• The number of job cuts announced in April, first-quarter productivity numbers, and weekly unemployment claims.
• In earnings, Apple, Block, Coinbase, DraftKings, Live Nation Entertainment, Moderna, Novo Nordisk, and Shell will report.
Breaking down the Fed meeting
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, much as investors had predicted. The Fed cited a lack of progress on the inflation front, saying the recent string of hotter-than-expected inflation data suggest it will take longer to start cutting rates.
But much to the market’s relief, Fed Chair Jerome Powell also didn’t mention that the central bank would hike rates further to combat the persistently sticky inflation we’re seeing in the data.
“In fact, great effort was made to reinforce that a hike was quite unlikely in the months to come,” writes SoFi Head of Investment Strategy Liz Young. With inflation still high, worries about the state of the American consumer — the backbone of the U.S. economy — have been on the rise. Read on for this week’s column that digs into what to watch and what might be less worrisome for now.
Today’s top stories
Domino’s is paying customers to tipThe pizza chain is offering a future discount to any customer who tips their delivery driver $3 or more, but some critics worry that this could perpetuate a broken system.
Read more >> How to own your emotions about moneyVenture Capitalist Arlan Hamilton, who focuses on backing Black, female-founded businesses, speaks about money and business on SoFi’s YouTube series Richer Live$.
Read more >> What drove markets in April?The S&P 500, the broadest measure of the U.S. stock market, snapped a five-month win streak in April. Here’s what was behind it.
Read more >>Other news that caught our eye
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The Education Department is canceling $6 billion in student loans for students who attended the Art Institutes, a for-profit college system that shuttered last year following fraud accusations.
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Microsoft signed a deal with Brookfield Asset Management to invest more than $10 billion to develop renewable energy capacity for the tech company’s data centers.
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Johnson & Johnson plans to pay $6.5 billion over 25 years to settle thousands of lawsuits related to allegations that its talc-based products caused ovarian cancer.
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Wordle Wars? LinkedIn launched word and logic puzzles to foster more engagement on the platform.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk shut down the company’s Supercharger division and let go of about 500 employees.
Financial planner tip of the day
“Linking your bank accounts can be a great way to manage your finances without making a trip to the bank. Linking can help you optimize your finances by allowing you to use the accounts that offer the best interest rates or other perks while still being able to make transfers between them — even if they’re at different institutions.”
Brian Walsh, CFP® at SoFi