Category: Business

(NEW YORK) — Hiring increased sharply at the outset of 2026, the year’s first jobs report said, blowing past economists’ expectations and besting sluggish performance from the previous year.

The U.S. added 130,000 jobs in January, according to the report, which marked a sharp increase from 50,000 jobs added in the previous month.

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% in January from 4.4% in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said. Unemployment remains low by historical standards.

The labor market slowed sharply last year, prompting interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve and concern among some observers about the nation’s economic prospects.

The BLS provided a significant downward revision for job gains in 2025, meaning hiring came in lower than the agency had previously estimated.

The U.S. added 181,000 jobs last year, which amounts to an average of about 15,000 jobs added per month, the BLS said. That updated estimate stands well below a prior count of 584,000 jobs added last year.

The performance in January registered well above the lackluster hiring of a typical month last year.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics delayed the release of the January data due to a partial government shutdown last week, which helps explain why the jobs report was issued on a Wednesday in the middle of the month, rather than its customary release on the month’s first Friday.

The jobs report arrived weeks after a series of job cuts that slashed tens of thousands of workers combined at a handful of name-brand companies.

Amazon said last month it planned to cut about 16,000 employees as it seeks to “strengthen” its business by reducing “layers” and “bureaucracy” within its workforce.

A day earlier, UPS announced it plans to cut as many as 30,000 employees this year. Pinterest also unveiled an effort to slash 15% of its staff, according to a securities filing. The company boasts about 4,500 employees worldwide, a securities filing shows.

So far, the cooling labor market has avoided widespread job losses, making the recent flurry of layoffs an outlier, analysts previously told ABC News. The high-profile cuts reflect trends in tech and some other sectors, however, where companies have reversed a pandemic-era hiring blitz and pivoted in response to artificial intelligence.

The Fed slashed interest rates three consecutive times last year in an effort to boost the flagging labor market. In January, the Fed opted to hold interest rates steady, taking a cautious approach due in part to elevated inflation.

The benchmark rate stands at a level between 3.5% and 3.75%. That figure marks a significant drop from a recent peak attained in 2023, but borrowing costs remain well above a 0% rate established at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, Fed Chair Jerome Powell appeared to view the economy in a favorable light, saying it is expanding at a “solid pace” during a Jan. 28 press conference.

“While job gains have remained low, the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization,” Powell added.

Futures markets expect two quarter-point interest rate cuts this year, forecasting the first in June and a second in the fall, according to CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.

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(NEW YORK) — A jobs report to be released on Wednesday will provide a key barometer of the U.S. economy as policymakers grapple with a combination of elevated inflation and sluggish hiring.

The labor market slowed sharply last year, prompting interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve and concern among some observers about the nation’s economic prospects.

The U.S. added an average of 49,000 jobs each month in 2025, which marked a staggering decline from 168,000 monthly jobs added over the prior year.

Economists expect employers to have hired 55,000 workers in January, amounting to a slight uptick from 50,000 hires in December. Still, the anticipated performance would barely register above the lackluster hiring of a typical month last year.

In a bright spot, however, the unemployment rate remains low by historical standards. Unemployment stood at 4.4% in December, and economists expect that level to have been left unchanged in January.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics delayed the release of the January data due to a partial government shutdown last week, which helps explain why the jobs report is set to be issued on a Wednesday in the middle of the month, rather than its customary release on the month’s first Friday.

The jobs report will arrive weeks after a series of job cuts that slashed tens of thousands of workers combined at a handful of name-brand companies.

Amazon said last month it planned to cut about 16,000 employees as it seeks to “strengthen” its business by reducing “layers” and “bureaucracy” within its workforce.

A day earlier, UPS announced it plans to cut as many as 30,000 employees this year. Pinterest also unveiled an effort to slash 15% of its staff, according to a securities filing. The company boasts about 4,500 employees worldwide, a securities filing shows.

So far, the cooling labor market has avoided widespread job losses, making the recent flurry of layoffs an outlier, analysts previously told ABC News. The high-profile cuts reflect trends in tech and some other sectors, however, where companies have reversed a pandemic-era hiring blitz and pivoted in response to artificial intelligence.

The Fed slashed interest rates three consecutive times last year in an effort to boost the flagging labor market. In January, the Fed opted to hold interest rates steady, taking a cautious approach due in part to elevated inflation.

The benchmark rate stands at a level between 3.5% and 3.75%. That figure marks a significant drop from a recent peak attained in 2023, but borrowing costs remain well above a 0% rate established at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, Fed Chair Jerome Powell appeared to view the economy in a favorable light, saying it is expanding at a “solid pace” during a Jan. 28 press conference.

“While job gains have remained low, the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization,” Powell added.

Futures markets expect two quarter-point interest rate cuts this year, forecasting the first in June and a second in the fall, according to CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.

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(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 50,000 for the first time ever on Friday.

A surge in markets reversed a selloff that hammered tech stocks earlier in the week.

The Dow closed up 1,206 points, or 2.4%, while the S&P 500 climbed 1.9%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 2.1%.

In a post on social media, President Donald Trump touted the high-water mark for the Dow, celebrating the feat as “the first time in History.”

“CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!” Trump said.

Shares of some tech companies worldwide plummeted in recent days after Anthropic unveiled an artificial intelligence tool viewed by some investors as a potential replacement for widely-used software products.

The selloff came in response to a set of new plugins for a digital tool called Claude Cowork, an AI-fueled workplace assistant that can author documents and organize files. The plugins, released last Friday, allow customers to adapt the tool for narrow sectors like legal, finance or data marketing.

Investors appeared to shrug off the AI-related worries in a buying spree on Friday.

AI chip giant Nvidia surged nearly 8%, recovering most of its losses earlier in the week.

Enterprise-software company Workday ticked up more than 2% on Friday, after a selloff in previous days triggered by the release of Claude Cowork.

Some crypto prices also rallied on Friday, ending a days-long plunge for many digital currencies. Bitcoin and Ether — the world’s two largest cryptocurrencies — each soared about 10% on Friday.

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(NEW YORK) — Consumer sentiment ticked higher in February for the second consecutive month as inflation fears appeared to ease, though shopper attitudes remained well below levels registered a year ago, University of Michigan data on Friday showed. The reading exceeded economists’ expectations

At its low point in November, consumer sentiment fell close to its worst level since a pandemic-era bout of acute inflation. Modest gains in recent months indicate some positive momentum for shoppers.

Year-ahead inflation expectations dropped from 4% in January to 3.5% in February, the data showed. The outcome anticipated by respondents would put inflation above its current level of 2.7%.

The labor market has slowed in recent months, while inflation has hovered above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.

Despite these challenges, some major economic indicators remain upbeat.

In the fall, shoppers helped propel the fastest quarterly U.S. economic growth in two years, federal government data in December showed.

Meanwhile, a relatively small fraction of American adults are unemployed and looking for work. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.4% in December from 4.6% in November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said, putting unemployment at a low level by historical standards.

Turmoil in markets this week, however, has prompted concern among some observers about the financial outlook.

Some major tech stocks plummeted in recent days after Anthropic unveiled an artificial intelligence tool viewed by some investors as a potential replacement for widely-used software products.

The price of bitcoin plunged more than 10% on Thursday, sinking the world’s largest cryptocurrency to its lowest level since October 2024 and erasing sizable gains made since then.

Geopolitical conflict also looms amid negotiations over Greenland, U.S.-backed leadership in Venezuela, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as persistent tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

In recent weeks, Trump has threatened tariffs against Canada, South Korea and eight European countries, invoking the tool as means of exerting pressure over a range of foreign-policy issues.

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(NEW YORK) — The price of bitcoin plunged more than 10% on Thursday, sinking the world’s largest cryptocurrency to its lowest level since October 2024 and erasing sizable gains made since then.

That was weeks before the election of President Donald Trump, a crypto supporter whose return to the nation’s highest office helped propel bitcoin to record highs.

Bitcoin clocked in at a price of about $66,100 on Thursday afternoon, leaving it 48% below an all-time high of about $126,210 attained just four months earlier, in October 2025.

The decline of bitcoin deepened a days-long stretch of sharp losses stretching back to last week.

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, also extended recent losses, shedding about 10% of its value on Thursday. Solana, another popular crypto coin, saw its price dip 11%.

Experts who previously spoke to ABC News attributed the recent decline in crypto prices to looming geopolitical and economic uncertainty, which has prompted a momentum-driven selloff as crypto holders raced to the exits. The initial drop likely forced some leveraged buyers to sell off their positions, intensifying the downward pressure, they added.

The labor market has slowed in recent months, while inflation has hovered above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.

Meanwhile, geopolitical conflict looms amid negotiations over Greenland, U.S.-backed leadership in Venezuela, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as escalating U.S. threats against Iran over the past few weeks.

In recent weeks, Trump has threatened tariffs against Canada, South Korea and eight European countries, invoking the tool as means of exerting pressure over a range of foreign-policy issues.

The current market for crypto is a far cry from the boom enjoyed by the sector in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.

Bitcoin climbed more than 40% over the weeks after Election Day, when voters opted for Trump, who had previously vowed to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”

On the campaign trail, Trump also vowed to bolster the cryptocurrency sector and ease regulations enforced by the Biden administration. Trump also promised to establish the federal government’s first National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

Bitcoin has proven highly volatile since its launch about 15 years ago

As recently as 2022, bitcoin suffered a downturn that cut its value by more than 60%. A similar drop happened in each of the prior two years, when the pandemic helped trigger waves of buying and selling.

Despite its ups and downs, bitcoin has sustained an upward long-term trajectory. Over the past five years, the price has climbed 63%. Over that period, the S&P 500 has increased 75%.

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(WASHINGTON) — The federal agency that investigates workplace discrimination is seeking court enforcement of a subpoena it has issued to Nike as it pursues allegations that the athletic apparel maker has been discriminating against its white employees in its corporate diversity policies. 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed its motion this week in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, where Nike has a factory that produces its famous AIR footwear technology. 

The agency’s charges against Nike date to 2024, when commission member, and current Trump-appointed chair, Andrea Lucas alleged that Nike had been engaging in a pattern of discriminatory practices, including “race-based workforce representation quotas,” and hiring, promotion, demotion and firing decisions that were a function of “disparate treatment against White employees, applicants, and training program participants.” 

In its filing, the EEOC says the charges were not triggered by internal complaints from workers, but were “based on publicly available information regarding Nike,” including the company’s public pledges to have “30% representation of racial and ethnic minorities at Director level and above in the U.S.,” and 35% representation across its entire U.S. corporate workforce.  

The EEOC said in the filing that it has gone to court because the company provided some, but not all, of the data the agency requested on the racial and ethnic makeup of its workforce following the issuance of a subpoena last September. 

“Respondent NIKE’s failure to comply with the subpoena has delayed and hampered the EEOC’s investigation of alleged unlawful employment practices under Title VII” of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the motion states.

In a statement to ABC News, a Nike spokesperson said that the EEOC’s move to seek court enforcement of the subpoena “feels like a surprising and unusual escalation.” 

“We have had extensive, good-faith participation in an EEOC inquiry into our personnel practices, programs, and decisions and have had ongoing efforts to provide information and engage constructively with the agency,” the Nike statement said. “We have shared thousands of pages of information and detailed written responses to the EEOC’s inquiry and are in the process of providing additional information.” 

Nike’s statement further said it is “committed to fair and lawful employment practices and follow[s] all applicable laws, including those that prohibit discrimination,” adding, “we believe our programs and practices are consistent with those obligations and take these matters seriously. We will continue our attempt to cooperate with the EEOC and will respond to the petition.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Walt Disney Company announced on Tuesday that Josh D’Amaro will become the company’s next CEO in March, replacing current chief executive Bob Iger when he steps down from the role this year. Dana Walden will become the company’s president and chief creative officer.

D’Amaro, chair of Disney’s experiences unit, oversees a global network of theme parks and hotel resorts. He also leads the company’s cruise ships and consumer products, among other initiatives. D’Amaro formally takes over the CEO role on March 18 at Disney’s upcoming annual meeting.

“Josh D’Amaro is an exceptional leader and the right person to become our next CEO,” Iger said in a statement on Tuesday.

“He has an instinctive appreciation of the Disney brand, and a deep understanding of what resonates with our audiences, paired with the rigor and attention to detail required to deliver some of our most ambitious projects. His ability to combine creativity with operational excellence is exemplary and I am thrilled for Josh and the company,” Iger added.

D’Amaro, 54, joined the company in 1998.

Walden is set to become the company’s president and chief creative officer, Disney said. Walden previously served as the head of Disney’s entertainment media, news and content businesses, including its streaming service.

Iger began his current tenure as CEO in 2022, after previously serving in the role from 2005 to 2020. He also served as chairman over that period. After stepping aside in 2020, Iger served as executive chairman and chairman of the board until 2021.

In a letter to shareholders in January, Disney Board Chairman James Gorman described management succession planning as a “top priority” for the company’s board of directors, according to a securities filing.

“Oversight of the process is led by our dedicated Succession Planning Committee, and all directors have actively participated in a rigorous and ongoing evaluation of potential successor candidates, including direct engagement, performance assessment and consideration of leadership capabilities aligned with the Company’s long-term strategy,” Gorman added.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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(NEW YORK) — Tax season kicked off this week as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service began allowing filers to submit completed tax forms.

Americans can file anytime before April 15. The IRS said earlier this month that it expects more than 164 million individual tax returns to be filed by that deadline.

Refunds are typically sent within 21 days, the agency says. For paper returns, the IRS says turnaround time can last more than four weeks.

Some tax filers can avail themselves of new options associated with the “One Big Beautiful Bill” enacted last year.

“Tax season 2026 brings some of the most significant tax code changes we’ve seen in years,” Alison Flores, director of the Tax Institute at H&R Block, said in a statement.

“The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ makes some rules permanent, introduces new ones, and creates a complex mix of deductions and credits that will impact the take-home pay of nearly every American,” Flores added.

For the first time, taxpayers can enroll in so-called Trump accounts, deposits of $1,000 made by the federal government for every baby born between 2025 and 2028.

Filers can enroll through elections on IRS Form 4547 as part of their tax return. Families can contribute up to $5,000 each year, while employers can contribute up to $2,500 annually for each employee.

Seniors, meanwhile, may opt for a new $6,000 tax deduction — or $12,000 for a married couple — as part of an effort to ease the tax burden for older Americans, the IRS said.

Tipped workers can deduct up to $25,000 in “qualified tips” as part of the “No Tax on Tips” initiative. The IRS defines eligible tips as those that involve “voluntary cash or charged tips received from customers, including shared tips,” according to the agency’s website.

Taxpayers who received overtime pay last year may also deduct such income in accordance with a “No Tax on Overtime” effort. Filers may deduct up to $12,500 or $25,000 for joint filers, the IRS said.

Car-loan interest may also be deducted, though the policy does not apply to lease payments. The maximum annual deduction for car-loan interest is $10,000, the IRS said, but the option is unavailable for individuals who report $100,000 or more in gross income.

Standard deduction limits increased this year, allowing filers to shield larger sums from taxes. On its website, the IRS spells out the new deduction amounts available at different income levels.

Up to nearly three in 10 Americans waits until the last minute to file their taxes, according to a 2024 survey by IPX 1031, a tax advisory firm. That amounts to tens of millions of people.

Taxpayers can typically file an extension that lasts six months, meaning those who obtain an extension will be allowed to submit their tax forms without penalty until Oct. 15.

If a filer forgoes an extension and files late, the person risks additional fees for the tardy submission. The penalty amounts to 5% of the taxes owed for each month that the filing is late, up to a maximum of 25%.

Under such circumstances, the IRS mails a letter or notice alerting the filer of a late fee.

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(NEW YORK) — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday is set to announce its latest decision on the level of interest rates, marking its first rate move since news surfaced of a federal criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

The investigation ratcheted up an extraordinary clash between the nation’s top central banker and the White House, which has urged the Fed to significantly reduce interest rates.

The central bank is widely expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday. The anticipated move would end a string of three consecutive quarter-point rate cuts, aligning with a cautious approach outlined by Powell last month, before reports of the investigation into his conduct.

“We’re well positioned to wait and see how the economy evolves,” Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 10.

Futures markets expect two quarter-point interest rate cuts this year, forecasting the first in June and a second in the fall, according to CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.

The federal probe appears to center on Powell’s testimony to Congress last year about cost overruns in a multi-billion-dollar office renovation project. Powell, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, issued a rare video message earlier this month rebuking the investigation as a politically motivated effort to influence the Fed’s interest rate policy.

The investigation follows months of strident criticism leveled at the Fed by Trump. The president denied any involvement in the criminal investigation during a brief interview with NBC News hours after the Fed posted Powell’s video.

Over the past year, hiring has slowed dramatically while inflation has remained elevated, risking an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation.” Those conditions have put the Fed in a difficult position.

The central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. To address pressure on both of its goals, the Fed primarily holds a single tool: interest rates.

The strain on both sides of the Fed’s mandate presents a “challenging situation” for the central bank, Powell noted last month.

“There’s no risk-free path for policy as we navigate this tension between our employment and inflation goals,” Powell said.

If the Fed raises interest rates as a means of protecting against elevated inflation, it risks a deeper slowdown of the labor market. On the other hand, by lowering rates to stimulate hiring, the Fed threatens to boost spending and worsen inflation.

The criminal investigation into Powell raised concern among some analysts and former top Fed officials, who said it poses a threat to central bank independence.

In the event a central bank loses independence, policymakers tend to favor lower interest rates as a means of boosting short-term economic activity, analysts previously told ABC News. Such a posture could pose a major risk of yearslong inflation fueled by a rise in consumer demand, untethered by interest rates.

Federal law allows the president to remove the Fed chair for “cause” — though no precedent exists for such an ouster. Powell’s term as chair is set to expire in May, but he can remain on the Fed’s policymaking board until 2028. Powell has not indicated whether he intends to remain on the board.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated, and will be updated again with the Fed’s rate decision.

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