Congress returns from summer break with a shutdown on the horizon
Lawmakers get back to work today in Washington, DC, following their August...
Lawmakers get back to work today in Washington, DC, following their August recess, and the No. 1 priority on Capitol Hill is keeping the government open for business. The federal government will shut down at the end of September if Congress doesn’t pass a short-term spending measure, but expect plenty of inter-party bickering since Republicans, who have the majority, still need Democratic votes for any funding bill. The Dems are planning to use that leverage to extract concessions from the GOP.
And not a moment too soon. The NFL regular season returns Thursday night when the defending Super Bowl...
And not a moment too soon. The NFL regular season returns Thursday night when the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles host the Micah Parsons-less Dallas Cowboys. The next day, the runners-up Kansas City Chiefs face the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil, one of seven international games on the calendar this season. The rest of the league will join in on Sunday, and there won’t be another Sunday without football until February 2026. The Eagles, Ravens, and Bills are the betting favorites to win Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara, CA.
Another lackluster jobs report expected. Friday’s...
Another lackluster jobs report expected. Friday’s monthly employment snapshot is projected to show that US employers added 75,000 jobs in July. That would make it the fourth straight month with sub-100k jobs growth—something that hasn’t happened since the beginning of Covid, per Bloomberg. The report will be a key data point for the Fed as the central bank tees up an interest rate cut later this month to help prop up the slowing labor market.
Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, ousted its CEO Laurent Freixe over an “undisclosed romantic relationship” with a direct subordinate.
A 6.0-magnitude earthquake killed more than 800 people and injured over 1,300 in eastern Afghanistan late Sunday.
Starbucks said its newly launched fall menu led to the “best-ever sales week” at company-operated stores in the US.
A CEO of a Polish paving company apologized after a viral video showed him taking a signed hat from a child at the US Open.
The Long Walk, a new Stephen King movie adaptation, held a screening this weekend in which viewers walked on treadmills—and if they got tired, they had to leave.
Gold prices hit all-time high on rising uncertainty; U.S. stock futures flat
U.S. stock-market futures were flat Monday while...
U.S. stock-market futures were flat Monday while gold and silver futures hit new all-time highs, amid uncertainty around the Fed’s independence and the Trump administration’s tariffs, as well as rising optimism about potential interest-rate cuts.
The continuous contract for gold futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose to a record high of $3,552.40 an ounce on Monday. Gold was most recently trading up 0.9%, around $3,547. The precious metal has seen its price soar about 34% year to date. The continuous contract for silver also surged 2% to a new high Monday, at $41.760. Silver was most recently trading at $41.580, up about 42% this year.
After initially rising about 40 points, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were last down 40 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures also gave up early gains and were down slightly. Bitcoin sank to near the $108,000 level, while crude oil, as reflected by West Texas Intermediate front-month prices , gained nearly 1%. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index , which measures the greenback against a basket of six foreign rivals, edged lower.
Gold and silver are seen as safe-haven assets, and their appeal has gained amid fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve may lose its independence, weakening the dollar. President Donald Trump has, for months, pressured Fed Chair Jerome Powell to slash interest rates, and his recent attempt to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook is seen by many as an attempt to impose control over the central bank.
Russia cuts gas supplies through its only remaining pipeline to Europe
Russia’s state gas monopoly Gazprom slightly...
Russia’s state gas monopoly Gazprom slightly reduced gas exports to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline in August, following a sharp increase in July, The Moscow Times wrote on Sept. 1.
Deliveries decreased by 2%, from 51.5 million cubic meters per day in July to 50.4 million in August.
With supplies through Yamal-Europe, Nord Stream, and — as of Jan. 1, 2025 — Ukraine’s transit system all halted, TurkStream remains Gazprom’s only operational route for delivering gas to Europe. The pipeline’s annual capacity is 15.75 billion cubic meters.
