Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and the broader economy.
The Federal Reserve under Kevin Warsh is sending a credible signal that it can bring inflation back to two percent by twenty twenty-nine, and Wall Street is finally listening. The case rests on slightly higher interest rates held for longer, a posture markets had resisted pricing in but are now beginning to accept as the new baseline.
Shifting to the consumer, Goldman Sachs economist Joseph Briggs is putting a name to something that's been nagging at the data for months — what he calls lower happiness. Even with employment solid and spending holding up, consumer sentiment remains deeply depressed, and Goldman's argument is that broad societal pessimism is doing real damage to confidence that economic indicators alone simply cannot explain.
And in Washington, journalists from MSNBC were denied entry to White House grounds Saturday, one day after the Trump administration formally banned three media outlets over their coverage of the president. The move raises immediate First Amendment questions and sets up what could become a prolonged legal and institutional confrontation between the press and the executive branch.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
