And Then The World Changed...

US Business Confidence Soared In April Amid "Panic, Emergency" Buying Ahead Of Price Spike Despite the recent slide in 'hard' macro data, analysts expected an incremental improvement in the preliminary April S&P Global PMI data this morning. Consensus was right as both Services and Manufacturing surveys signaled an uptick in April US business activity growth recovered slightly in April having slowed to near-stagnation in March following the outbreak of war in the Middle East. However, the overall pace of expansion remained subdued, most notably in the services economy where demand faltered. Flash US...

USPS Pauses Pension Contributions Amid Looming Cash Shortfall Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has temporarily suspended its employer contributions to a government-wide pension plan after warning Congress that, without changes, it could run out of cash within the next year. On Thursday, USPS told the Office of Personnel Management—the federal government’s human resource division—that it would pause its biweekly employer contributions to the Federal Employees Retirement System, or FERS. The move is expected to conserve about $2.5 billion through Sept. 30, the end of the...

'Mission Impossible' Begins: Watch Live As Kevin Warsh Is Sworn In As 17th Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who’s promised the biggest shakeup in decades at the US central bank, is set to be sworn into office this morning at 1100ET in a White House ceremony as the 17th chair of the Federal Reserve. Warsh takes over at a tense moment for the economy and the central bank. Inflation has reaccelerated, driven by the impact of war in the Middle East on energy supplies. The Fed, meanwhile, has been battered by President...