Peloton voluntarily recalls over 800,000 bikes for potential seat post issue
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(NEW YORK) — Exercise equipment company Peloton is voluntarily recalling approximately 833,000 exercise bikes due to a potential issue specific to the bike’s seat post, the company announced Thursday.
According to the company announcement, the recall affects “certain Original Series Bike+ models manufactured from December 2019 through July 2022 for sale in the U.S. and Canada.”
“The Original Series Bike+ seat post can break during use, posing a potential fall and injury risk to consumers,” the company stated.
Peloton said it has so far received three reports of Original Series Bike+ seat posts breaking “out of approximately 833,000 units sold in the U.S.”
“Peloton has received no reports of a seat post breaking, out of 44,800 units sold in Canada,” it added.
According to a recall announcement on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website, the affected bikes were sold at Peloton and Dick’s Sporting Goods stores nationwide, as well as online at Peloton, Dick’s, Amazon and eBay from January 2020 to April 2025. The bikes retailed for approximately $2,495, according to the agency.
The CPSC also stated that of the three broken seat post reports Peloton received, two included “reports of injuries due to a fall.”
Peloton said Thursday that impacted users should stop using the recalled bikes and contact Peloton for a replacement seat post.
The replacement seat post is a CPSC-approved solution, a Peloton spokesperson told ABC News.
Both the company and the CPSC noted the new seat posts can be self-installed.
The affected bikes bear the model number PL02 and serial numbers beginning with the letter “T,” according to Peloton. The serial number can be found “inside the front fork, behind the front fork, or behind the flywheel,” the company said.
In a statement to ABC News, the Peloton spokesperson said, “The integrity of our products and our Members’ well-being are our top priorities. We are taking this opportunity to make replacement seat posts available to all affected Bike+ users and we encourage them to contact us to receive the redesigned seat post as soon as possible.”
Peloton previously voluntarily recalled over 2 million bikes, Bike Model PL01, in 2023, warning that the bike seat post assembly could break and cause users to fall.
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, opting for its first interest rate cut this year in an effort to revive the flagging labor market.
The central bank delivered a policy long-sought by President Donald Trump, though the size of the rate cut all but certainly fell short of Trump’s desired outcome. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a policymaking body at the Fed, projected two additional quarter-point rate cuts over the remainder of the year.
Five meetings and nine months have elapsed since the Fed last cut interest rates. The federal funds rate stands between 4% and 4.25%, preserving much of a sharp increase imposed in response to a pandemic-era bout of inflation.
The Fed is guided by a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. In a statement on Wednesday, the FOMC indicated greater concern for slowing employment growth than for rising inflation.
“The Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate and judges that downside risks to employment have risen,” the FOMC said.
The high-stakes announcement marks a flashpoint in the monthslong pressure campaign directed at the Fed by Trump.
In recent weeks, Trump has moved to fire one member of the Fed’s board of governors and secure Senate confirmation for another. Both officials were on track to be among the 12 policymakers who cast votes on the interest-rate decision, though their status remained uncertain days before the Fed meeting.
The race to reshape the Fed comes after Trump railed for months against the central bank and its Chair Jerome Powell for declining to heed his call for lower interest rates. In July, Powell stressed the importance of political independence, saying it allows central bankers to make “very challenging decisions” based on “data.”
In a social media post on Monday, Trump reiterated his criticism of Powell, saying the Fed chair “MUST CUT INTEREST RATES, NOW, AND BIGGER THAN HE HAD IN MIND.”
In recent months, the economy has suffered a sharp hiring slowdown alongside an uptick of inflation, setting the conditions for what economists call “stagflation.”
The economic conditions have put Fed policymakers in a bind. If the Fed raises interest rates as a means of protecting against tariff-induced inflation, it risks tipping the economy into a downturn. On the other hand, if the Fed lowers rates to stimulate the economy in the face of a hiring slowdown, it threatens to boost spending and worsen inflation.
Last month, Powell said the central bank faces a “challenging situation,” putting pressure on both sides of the Fed’s dual mission to maximize employment and control inflation.
Still, Powell said, the “balance of risks appears to be shifting” in light of a hiring slowdown made clear in a weak jobs report earlier this year that included sharp downward revisions of job gains over recent months.
Trump recently moved to fire board member Lisa Cook, who sued Trump over her attempted ouster, saying the decision violated her legal protections as an employee at the independent federal agency. Trump said he removed Cook over mortgage fraud allegations against her.
Federal law allows the president to remove a member of the Fed board “for cause,” though no president has attempted such a removal in the 112-year history of the central bank.
Last week, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Fed to let Cook continue serving in her role as a governor of the Federal Reserve System as her lawsuit moves through the courts.
Days later, the Trump administration filed a request with an appeals court asking to remove Cook by Monday, before the scheduled vote on interest rates. That day, an appeals court rejected Trump’s bid, clearing the path for Cook to vote at the Fed meeting. Trump may appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Last month, Trump called on Cook to resign on the same day that Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, posted on X part of an Aug. 15 letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing Cook of falsifying bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, “potentially committing mortgage fraud,” the letter stated.
In a statement provided to ABC News at the time, Cook said she learned from the media about Pulte’s letter seeking a criminal referral over the mortgage application, which predated her time with the Federal Reserve.
“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said in the statement last week. “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
The Senate voted 48-47 on Monday to confirm White House economic adviser Stephen Miran’s nomination to serve as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, paving the way for Miran to cast a vote on interest rates.
Miran has vowed to safeguard central bank independence but said earlier this month that he does not plan to resign from his position within the Trump administration. Miran is filling a vacancy created by the early retirement of Fed board member Adrianna Kugler, whose term was set to end in January.
Miran said he plans to take an unpaid leave of absence from his current role. Miran reached the decision after “advice from counsel,” since his term on the Fed board would last four months, Miran said at a Senate hearing this month.
Vegetables on display in a grocery store, August 15, 2025 in Delray Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices rose 3% in September compared to a year ago, extending a monthslong uptick that has sent inflation to its highest level since January, government data on Friday showed. The reading came in lower than economists’ expectations.
The fresh data marked a slight increase from a 2.9% year-over-year increase recorded a month prior. An acceleration of price increases over recent months has coincided with a flurry of tariffs issued by President Donald Trump.
Beef prices soared nearly 15% over the year ending in September, data showed. Trump has set off outcry among some ranchers over a plan to import beef from Argentina in an effort to reduce U.S. prices.
Egg prices, a longtime symbol of rising costs, fell almost 5% in September. The price of eggs stands about 1% lower than where it was a year ago. The price of coffee has surged 19% over the past year, the data showed.
The White House touted the September inflation numbers coming in below economists’ expectations on Friday, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posting on social media that they were “good news” for American families.
Leavitt also said on Xthat the ongoing government shutdown would likely result in no inflation report for October, “which will leave businesses, markets, families, and the Federal Reserve in disarray.”
The data arrived more than a week later than originally planned, since the government shutdown has severely hamstrung the release of information about the economy.
The latest acceleration of price increases comes at a wobbly moment for the nation’s economy. In recent months, inflation has picked up while hiring has slowed, posing a risk of an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation.”
The economic conditions have put the Federal Reserve in a bind. If the Fed raises interest rates as a means of protecting against tariff-induced inflation, it risks tipping the economy into a downturn. On the other hand, if the Fed lowers rates to stimulate the economy in the face of a hiring slowdown, it threatens to boost spending and worsen inflation.
Last month, the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point, opting for its first interest rate cut this year in an effort to revive the labor market.
“It’s a challenging situation when our goals are in tension like this,” Powell said, but he added that the balance of risks had shifted toward greater concern over sluggish hiring.
Policymakers are widely expected to make an additional quarter-point cut when they meet next week, according to CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
But an elevated inflation reading on Friday could give Fed officials pause, since a rate cut would increase the likelihood of a spike in demand that further drives up prices.
In recent months, tariffs modestly contributed to the uptick in overall inflation, analysts previously told ABC News, but overall price increases owed largely to a rise in housing and food products with little connection to Trump’s levies.
Last week, President Donald Trump threatened 100% tariffs on all China-made goods starting Nov. 1 in response to restrictions placed on rare earth minerals. Beijing has publicly stood firm on the policy, leaving the two sides at an impasse with massive implications for the price of consumer goods imported from China.
(NEW YORK) — Stocks dropped in early trading on Wednesday, just hours after a government shutdown began, shuttering some government services and complicating a delicate moment for the nation’s economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 87 points, or 0.1%, while the S&P 500 slid 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 0.6%.
The selloff marked the first sign of shutdown-related strain for markets, which shrugged off the looming impasse a day earlier. Each of the major indexes ticked up on Tuesday, including a record high for the Dow.
The shutdown coincides with a rough patch for the U.S. economy, at least by some key metrics. A recent hiring slowdown has stoked recession fears, while inflation has proven difficult to fully contain.
Fresh hiring data on Wednesday morning deepened concern about the labor market. Private sector employment declined by 32,000 jobs in September, registering well short of economists’ expectations of 45,000 jobs added, according to data firm ADP research.
A government shutdown typically risks only modest damage for the U.S. economy, stemming mainly from furloughed public workers, who temporarily lose out on pay and put a dent in U.S. consumer spending, analysts previously told ABC News.
The impact of a shutdown could be more significant this time around, however, since the wobbly economy may strain under the weight of a potentially prolonged interruption, while a halt in the release of key economic data could make it more difficult for policymakers to steer the economy, they added.
