Catching you up on today's business headlines with Jerome Powell stating that the Fed is ‘acutely focused’ on inflation, President Biden claiming that a recession is "not inevitable," and gas prices seeing the first declines in weeks.

Closing Bell

Biz Headlines: Fed on Inflation, Biden on Recession, Gas Prices Decline

Federal Reserve Chair jerome Powell emphasized today that the U. S. Central bank is quote acutely focused on hitting its goal of bringing inflation down. The Fed said in a report to Congress that it's taking all steps it can to moderate prices for us. The consumer, the report is an annual precursor to Powell's testimony before Congress next week when he will present the U. S. Central bank's monetary policy to lawmakers, The Fed has said it will continue to raise rates until inflation returns to its 2% target Right now, the figure is more than four times as high. The central bank is aiming for a so called soft landing to slow inflation without harming the economy. The Fed on Wednesday announcing it is raising interest rates three quarters of a percentage point. That's an aggressive move meant to combat persistently high inflation that we're seeing now as the Fed raises rates, economists, investors and experts have been increasingly concerned about the possibility of a recession. President biden said in an interview with The Associated Press that a recession is quote not inevitable even as americans deal with highly elevated prices for everyday essentials like gas and food. While the President maybe expressing confidence. Chief executives are not as optimistic. A new conference board survey finds that more than 60% of ceo see a recession in the next year to year and a half. Another 15% of chief executives think their area of the world is already in a recession. While prices rise and as recession concerns, loom oil and gas prices are actually down. I haven't said that in a long time for the first time in weeks, U. S. Oil prices are down more than 7% at their lowest point in about three weeks, fears of a recession are driving prices lower. As investors consider rate hikes that could slow the global economy and as a result, lead to slowing energy demand.