JOBLESS CLAIMS RISE, BUT HOLD NEAR PANDEMIC LOW — WSJ’s Sarah Chaney Cambon: “The number of workers applying for and receiving unemployment benefits has reached pandemic lows over the past month, a sign the job-market recovery remains on sound footing despite uncertainty surrounding the Delta variant of Covid-19. “Unemployment claims edged up to 353,000 last week from a revised 349,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility in the weekly figures, fell to 366,500 last week, a new pandemic low.” POWELL’S DILEMMA: HIGH INFLATION AND A SURGING VIRUS — AP’s Christopher Rugaber: “Not long ago, anticipation was high that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell might begin to sketch out a plan this week for the Fed to start pulling back on its support for an economy that has been steadily strengthening. That was before COVID-19 cases began accelerating across the country. “Now, the decision of how and when the Fed should begin dialing back its help for the economy has become a more complicated one. Yet in outlining his view of the economy and the threats it faces in a high-profile speech Friday, Powell may provide important clues to the timing of changes in the Fed’s ultra-low-interest rate policies.” What are investors hoping to hear from Powell? — Reuters: “Investors will be scouring remarks on Friday by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for clues on tapering the central bank's asset purchases, as well as how the economy is faring amid the spread of the Covid-19 Delta variant. "While expectations for market-moving revelations are low for the Fed's one-day 2021 Economic Policy Symposium, which will be held online instead of in-person in Jackson Hole, Wyoming due to virus concerns, all eyes will be on Powell who speaks at 10 a.m. EDT.” HOW SHOULD THE FED DEAL WITH CLIMATE CHANGE? — NYT’s Neil Irwin: “The climate crisis is at high risk of becoming an economic crisis. That is an increasingly widespread view among leading economic thinkers — that a range of economic and financial problems could result from a warming planet and humanity’s efforts to deal with it. “But if you believe that to be true, what should the United States’ economist-in-chief do about it? That question has taken new urgency as President Biden weighs whether to reappoint Jerome Powell to another term leading the Federal Reserve or choose someone else.” FED OFFICIALS SAY TIME FOR TAPERING IS GETTING CLOSER — WSJ’s Michael S. Derby: “Three Federal Reserve officials said in separate television interviews Thursday that the time to cut back on central-bank bond-buying stimulus is looming. “With inflation running at unexpectedly high levels and uncertainty about whether it will moderate next year, ‘we want to get going on taper, get the taper finished by the end of the first quarter next year,’ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said on CNBC. Mr. Bullard was giving his view on when the Fed should wrap up its bond-buying stimulus.” CORPORATE PROFITS SOAR IN SECOND QUARTER — Reuters' Lucia Mutikani: “U.S. corporate profits surged to a fresh record high in the second quarter, boosted by robust demand and higher prices, suggesting that an anticipated slowdown in economic growth this quarter because of soaring COVID-19 cases could be temporary.” TWO OF BOFA’S POST-CRISIS LEADERS TO RETIRE — NYT’s Lananh Nguyen: “Two towering figures who helped steer Bank of America out of the financial crisis a decade ago will retire at the end of the year, the bank said Thursday. The departures of Anne Finucane, the bank’s vice chair and one of Wall Street’s most powerful women, and Thomas K. Montag, the bank’s hard-charging chief operating officer, open the door for new leadership atop the nation’s second-biggest bank.”
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