Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on the stories moving markets and policy.
President Trump is pushing back hard against the Fed ahead of Kevin Warsh's first policy meeting as chair, telling NBC's Meet the Press that raising rates would be wrong. The comments came directly after a blowout May jobs report shifted market bets toward a hike, putting Trump and the central bank on a collision course over the inflation outlook.
Shifting to geopolitics, Trump is calling the ongoing U.S. and Israeli military campaign against Iran a quote military exercise, even as missiles and drones continue flying across the Persian Gulf. He told NBC the Iranian leadership has been largely decapitated, while simultaneously denying he ever pledged to keep the country out of new wars, despite repeated public statements to the contrary.
And on the labor front, major banks are quietly laying the groundwork for significant workforce reductions as artificial intelligence takes deeper hold across financial services. The shift is already reshaping hiring, with entry-level candidates at institutions like Warwick University now navigating AI-powered screening rounds before ever speaking to a human recruiter.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
