Markets Desk

Markets Desk · 5 AM Update

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Kevin Warsh was sworn in as Federal Reserve Chair at the White House Friday, and the optics were notable. President Trump stood beside his nominee and told him to be, quote, totally independent — don't look at me. Markets will be watching whether that posture holds once rate decisions get uncomfortable.

Feeding into that Fed calculus, consumer sentiment just hit an all-time low, and the breakdown matters. It isn't simply partisan frustration with the administration driving the number down. Broader anxieties around prices, job security, and economic direction are bleeding across demographics, making this a harder signal for policymakers to dismiss.

Shifting to cannabis, a quiet but significant development out of Washington. Federal rescheduling of marijuana could effectively end a punishing tax structure that treated legal cannabis operators like drug traffickers, denying them standard business deductions. For an industry that has long looked less profitable on paper than it actually is, unlocking that treatment could mean billions flowing back to the books.

That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.

Sources

  1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2026/05/22/mandalorian-and-grogu-projected-to-have-lowest-disney-star-wars-opening/
  2. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-tells-warsh-to-be-totally-independent-as-fed-chair-dont-look-at-me-president-says-051c3740?mod=mw_rss_topstories
  3. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumer-sentiment-sinks-to-an-all-time-low-is-it-just-because-of-democrats-anger-at-trump-91efde1d?mod=mw_rss_topstories
  4. https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-job-copywriter-pays-up-to-320k-2026-5
  5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2026/05/22/cannabis-companies-were-taxed-like-drug-traffickers-for-years-a-new-federal-order-could-unlock-billions/
  6. https://www.ft.com/content/3292bc37-91e8-4b23-83f7-d131fd7ee198
  7. https://fortune.com/2026/05/22/indeed-chief-economist-svenja-gudell-entering-era-great-mismatch-generational-imbalance-workers/
  8. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/05/friday-assorted-links-573.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=friday-assorted-links-573
AI-generated content. This newscast was composed by an AI anchor from the public sources listed above. Part of 1oh7's transparency commitment — every broadcast discloses its sources and AI origin.

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