Market snapshot · Aug. 12, 2026 close
The American FilingSection
Inflation, jobs, growth and the Federal Reserve
The Federal Open Market Committee left its benchmark rate at 3.50%-3.75% in a 9-3 vote, the widest split of Kevin Warsh's brief tenure as chair, with three regional presidents arguing that five years of above-target inflation demands tightening.
The 15% balance-of-payments surcharge lapsed by operation of law at 12:01 a.m. on July 24. USTR duties of 10% to 12.5% covering the vast majority of U.S. imports took its place without a gap.
Net interest on the federal debt reached roughly $857 billion through the first nine months of the fiscal year, on its way to becoming one of the largest single items in the budget.
Investment in AI infrastructure accounted for the overwhelming majority of first-quarter growth, a concentration that flatters the headline number and raises an uncomfortable question about what happens when the building slows.
The 17th chair of the Federal Reserve took the oath at the White House, ending Jerome Powell's eight-year run at the top of the central bank — though not his service as a governor.
The 54-45 tally made Kevin Warsh the most divisively confirmed Federal Reserve chair in the institution's history, with Pennsylvania's John Fetterman the only Democrat to vote yes.
Gasoline prices up more than a quarter from a year earlier drove the headline index to its highest annual rate since May 2023, and core prices picked up too.
Congress funded almost the entire government before the January 30 deadline and still triggered a lapse, then left a single department dark from mid-February until the end of April.