Shares in Trump’s Truth Social fall to record low following presidential debate
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(NEW YORK) — Shares in former President Donald Trump’s social media company fell to a record low Wednesday on the heels of Tuesday’s presidential debate, which a CNN poll indicated was won by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, closed down 10.5% Wednesday to end the day at a record low.
Shared dipped as much as 17% Wednesday before slightly improving at the close of trading.
For some investors, Trump Media serves as a bellwether for the former president’s odds in the upcoming presidential election. When Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts in New York in May, the company’s stock price tumbled — but the stock surged in the days following the July presidential debate and the assassination attempt on the former president.
Analysts have said that the company’s stock performance is removed from the financial outlook of the company, which reported losing more than $16 million over a three-month period ending in June during which it only brought in $836,000 in revenue.
The stock price has been buoyed by a number of passionate individual investors who bought shares in the company to support Trump or because they believe in the company’s mission.
Next week, Trump faces a pivotal choice about his investment in the company. The lockup provision that barred him from selling his shares for the first six months since the company went public expires next week, meaning that Trump could begin selling his shares in the company as early as Sept. 19.
According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Trump owns approximately 115 million shares of the company, which are worth nearly $2 billion based on Wednesday’s stock price.
On paper, Trump has lost more than $4 billion in his stake over the last six months as the company’s stock price has declined.
A representative for Trump Media & Technology Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices rose 2.5% in August compared to a year ago, slowing more than expected and delivering welcome news for the Federal Reserve, days before a widely expected interest rate cut.
Inflation cooled significantly from a year-over-year rate of 2.9% recorded in the previous month.
Price increases have fallen from a peak in 2022, but inflation remains higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.
The chances of an interest rate cut at the Fed’s meeting next week are all but certain, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment. Market observers are divided over whether the Fed will impose its typical cut of a quarter of a percentage point, or opt for a larger half-point cut.
So far this year, the job market has slowed alongside cooling inflation. That trend was underscored last week by a weaker-than-expected jobs report, though employers added a solid 142,000 jobs. The unemployment rate has ticked up this year from 3.7% to 4.2%.
The Fed is guided by a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. In theory, low interest rates help stimulate economic activity and boost employment, while high interest rates slow economic performance and ease inflation.
Recent trends have shifted the Fed’s focus away from controlling inflation and toward ensuring a healthy job market.
Speaking at an annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the “time has come” for the Fed to adjust its interest rate policy.
At previous meetings, Powell said the Fed needed to be confident that inflation had begun moving sustainably downward to its target rate of 2% before instituting rate cuts. Last month, Powell appeared to indicate that the Fed had achieved that objective.
“My confidence has grown that inflation is on a sustainable path down to 2%,” Powell said.
Since last year, the Federal Reserve has held interest rates at their highest level in more than two decades. High borrowing costs for everything from mortgages to credit card loans have helped slow the economy and lower inflation, but the policy risks tipping the U.S. into a recession.
Last month, Goldman Sachs economists raised the probability of a U.S. recession in the next year from 15% to 25%. However, economists disagree about whether current economic conditions warrant serious concern.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. economy grew at a robust pace over three months ending in September, slowing slightly from the previous quarter but continuing to dispel any concern about a possible slowdown. The fresh report marks one of the last major pieces of economic data before the presidential election.
U.S. GDP grew at a 2.8% annualized rate over three months ending in September. That figure fell slightly below economists’ expectations.
Economic growth was fueled by surge in consume spending, an uptick in exports and strong federal government spending, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis said.
The new data arrived weeks after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a half of a percentage point. The landmark decision dialed back a years-long fight against inflation and offered relief for borrowers saddled with high costs.
Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of about 9% in 2022, though it remains slightly higher than the Fed’s target of 2%.
Meanwhile, the labor market has proven resilient. Employers hired 254,000 workers in September, far exceeding economist expectations of 150,000 jobs added, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%, hovering near a 50-year low.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Inflation is down significantly from its 9.1% pandemic-era peak in 2022, but the cost of food — especially groceries — may continue to puzzle some consumers at checkout lines as new data showed two major categories with slight price increases.
Despite signs of overall inflation cooling compared to a year ago, the current rate of 2.9% remains higher than the Federal Reserve’s target.
The latest Consumer Price Index report for August, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday, showed that while inflation has softened, staples such as groceries are up 1.1% compared to 2023 with higher prices on some common household products like eggs and meat, poultry and fish.
Breaking down the latest inflation data on food and grocery prices
The food index, which is comprised of food away from home and food at home, has increased 2.1% over the last year — and after rising 0.2% in each of the previous two months, was up another 0.1% in August.
There was a slight 0.3% drop last month for takeout and dining, according to the CPI, but food at home remained unchanged.
“Food away from home slowed a little bit at 3.9% year over year, versus that .9% for the food at home category,” Dr. Michael Swanson, Wells Fargo’s Chief Agriculture Economist, told ABC News. “So they’re both slowly kind of trending back down, but still, that’s a big gap and it’s been a pretty persistent gap, which really speaks to the wages at the restaurant level.”
He reminded that “if you can bring yourself to spend a little time prepping food or cooking food at home, you’re going to save yourself a lot of money.”
Grocery prices slowly rise in two major categories, what it means
Food at home rose at a slower pace than overall inflation at .09% over the last year, but two of the six major grocery store food groups — meats, poultry, fish, and eggs — rose last month and by 3.2% over the last 12 months.
The popular animal proteins went up 0.8% in August and eggs increased 4.8%, as dairy and related products increased 0.5% in August.
“When we see a category like eggs where it came in at $3.20 for a dozen at the national number — vs. a year ago in August where it was $2.04 and the answer is, why?” Dr. Swanson posited. “We know that we dealt with avian influenza early in the year, barns are being repopulated, but we’re not right back to where we were previously. So there’s a good, clear story about what happened there.”
“The big dollar category is meat, poultry and eggs — of the food at home category — which had the two worst performers across the entire supermarket,” Swanson said. “It wasn’t really that the ranchers got more money or the wholesalers got more money this month, we saw the retailer spreads move up.”
Food price predictions as we inch towards fall, holidays
Swanson likened food price fluctuations to seasonal weather patterns that yield long term benefits: “For example, how much snow did you get in California and will there be enough melt and water to fill the reservoirs to then be able to grow more strawberries.”
“We’re gonna have the biggest corn and soybean crop ever in the history of United States, according to the USDA,” Swanson said, which he explained has dropped the prices “way down from a year ago.” He continued, “that’s really important to the consumer ultimately, because that’s what impacts [the price of] chickens, beef and everything else — so there’s good news, but it’s not here just yet.”
How grocers are meeting shopper demand for lower prices
“No retailer simply gives you money, if they’re going to give you lower prices or better value, it’s because they went out and fought with their suppliers to get it for you,” he explained.
“What we’re seeing in that universe of wholesalers and food manufacturers, they’re starting to get a lot more pressure from the retailers to say, ‘Help me out here, because I need to do more for our shoppers,'” Swanson said. “It’s a slow process, but it’s been a complete tide shift in mentality and so all the retailers, to some degree have gone back to say, ‘You just have to do better than that.'”
Swanson found in looking at the Federal Reserve Board which tracks capacity utilization in food manufacturing, that “during the peak of the crisis — they didn’t have any spare capacity, so they weren’t interested in negotiating with food retailers like Walmart.”
Since that’s no longer the case, Swanson said we’re starting to see “a little bit more and more slack” which makes wholesalers “more susceptible to arm twisting from the food retailers.”
