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"Following last month’s half-percentage-point cut in the fed funds rate, a more gradual path back to a normal policy stance will likely be appropriate from here to best balance the risks to our dual-mandate goals," Logan said in her first public remarks since the Fed reduced its policy rate to the 4.75%-5.00% range three weeks ago. In prepared remarks to an energy conference hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership, Logan ran through a litany of reasons to go slow, even as she also noted that inflation progress has been broad-based and the labor market has cooled. "I continue to see a meaningful risk that inflation could get stuck above our 2% goal," she said, noting the potential for stronger-than-expected consumer spending or economic growth; "unwarranted" further easing in financial conditions; and the possibility that the level of borrowing costs that neither presses down or up on economic growth - the "neutral rate" - is higher than it was before the pandemic.

Germany's government said Wednesday that the country's economy, Europe's biggest, is on track to shrink for a second consecutive year — underlining the unpopular administration's troubles as it heads into a difficult election year. The new forecast that gross domestic product will shrink by 0.2% this year compares with the government's prediction in April of 0.3% growth and brings it into line with economists, who also have forecast a slight contraction. The German economy shrank by 0.3% in 2023.

(Bloomberg) -- Investors who expect central banks in industrialized nations to successfully tap the brakes on growth while skirting downturns would do well to target five-year bonds, according to Pacific Investment Management Co.Most Read from BloombergUrban Heat Stress Is Another Disparity in the World’s Most Unequal NationFrom Cleveland to Chicago, NFL Teams Dream of Domed StadiumsChicago’s $1 Billion Budget Hole Exacerbated by School TurmoilSingapore Ends 181 Years of Horse Racing to Make Way

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s annual inflation sped up roughly in line with estimates in September after the nation’s energy regulator hiked electricity costs in response to the worst drought on record.Most Read from BloombergUrban Heat Stress Is Another Disparity in the World’s Most Unequal NationFrom Cleveland to Chicago, NFL Teams Dream of Domed StadiumsChicago’s $1 Billion Budget Hole Exacerbated by School TurmoilSingapore Ends 181 Years of Horse Racing to Make Way for HomesShould Evictions Be Ban

(Bloomberg) -- There is a risk the Federal Reserve has to raise interest rates next year given the inflationary policy platforms of both US presidential candidates, according to Mark Dowding, the chief investment officer at RBC BlueBay Asset Management.Most Read from BloombergUrban Heat Stress Is Another Disparity in the World’s Most Unequal NationFrom Cleveland to Chicago, NFL Teams Dream of Domed StadiumsChicago’s $1 Billion Budget Hole Exacerbated by School TurmoilSingapore Ends 181 Years of

Oil prices erased early gains on Wednesday as weak demand fundamentals and rising supply countered elevated risk of supply disruption from conflict in the Middle East and Hurricane Milton in the United States. Brent crude futures fell 40 cents, or 0.4%, to $76.81 a barrel by 1028 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures lost 36 cents, or 0.49%, to $73.21. "We have quite the tug-of-war between the bulls and the bears, with the former pinning expectations of higher prices on Middle Eastern geopolitics while the latter are looking at weak demand and a lack of fiscal stimulus in China," said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of research at Onyx Capital Group.

"They were late raising rates but they raised very high, rapidly, to 5% which I think is the right thing," JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon said. "And they're right to take the foot off the gas on that one."