The Fed Will Raise Rates in the Week Ahead, But What Chair Powell Says May Matter Most

The week ahead may all come down to what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has to say at 2:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.

Powell briefs the press following the central bank's two-day meeting. The Fed is widely expected to raise its fed funds target rate range by a half percentage point, but hot May inflation data has made markets nervous about whether policymakers could be even more aggressive or forecast a faster pace of future rate hikes.

Bernanke Says Fed Can Sidestep Big Recession in Inflation Fight

Former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke said Fed leaders could pull off a so-called soft landing as long as supply-side inflation pressure improves. Such a scenario could look like no recession or a very mild recession that brings down the hottest US inflation in 40 years, Bernanke said.

SECTORS

Oil Extends Losses as Investors Weigh US Inflation

West Texas Intermediate futures fell more than 1% to trade near $119 a barrel amid a broader market selloff. US inflation accelerated to a fresh 40-year high last month, raising the likelihood of more aggressive interest-rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

DHL Warns Supply Chain Won't Recover to Pre-Covid Days in 2023

Port congestion should ease next year as new container vessels are delivered and demand from shippers softens from pandemic highs, but not enough to restore global supply-chain flows to where they were before Covid, according to the head of DHL's freight-forwarding unit.

COMPANIES

Google Suspends Engineer Who Claimed Its AI System Is a Person

$Alphabet-A(GOOGL.US)$ suspended an engineer who contended that an artificial-intelligence chatbot the company developed had become sentient, telling him that he had violated the company's confidentiality policy after it dismissed his claims.

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Apple's Newest Homegrown Chips Present a Fresh Challenge to Microsoft's Windows Business

$Apple(AAPL.US)$ is positioned to gain PC market share from $Microsoft(MSFT.US)$ Windows after announcing MacBook laptops with the next-generation M2 chips. $Adobe(ADBE.US)$ , Microsoft and other app developers have been making their software compatible with Apple silicon, giving companies more of an incentive to make the switch.

Tesla Files for 3-for-1 Stock Split

$Tesla(TSLA.US)$ filed its annual proxy statement with the SEC and revealed it plans a three-for-one stock split, and that board member Larry Ellison does not plan to stand for re-election.

Three-Dose Pfizer Covid Vaccine Works Safely in Young Children, Review Says

The FDA staff said, in a review of study data posted online Sunday, that there were no new safety concerns using the vaccine in young children compared with older age groups.$Pfizer(PFE.US)$

Source: Bloomberg, WSJ, CNBC