The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates, and the European Central Bank will discuss tapering its stimulus. The U. S. will release its list of tariffs on Chinese goods.
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The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates, and the European Central Bank will discuss tapering its stimulus. The U. S. will release its list of tariffs on Chinese goods.
By The New York Times
Here’s what to expect in the week ahead:
Technology
Federal internet rules known as net neutrality will officially disappear on Monday. The rules, dating from the Obama administration, require internet providers to give consumers equal access to all content online. The Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal the rules in December. The repeal is expected to draw online protests.
— Cecilia Kang
Media
A federal judge on Tuesday will decide AT&T’s $85.4 billion bid for Time Warner, a deal that would create a media and telecommunications powerhouse and help set a path for mergers for years to come. The Justice Department sued in November to block the deal, saying the merger would raise prices and hurt competition by allowing AT&T to charge competitors higher licensing fees for Time Warner content. Judge Richard Leon of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia will announce his opinion from the bench at 4 p.m. on Tuesday following a six-week trial earlier this year.
— Cecilia Kang
Economy
Inflation in recent years has been like a horror movie villain: feared, but not seen. But with retail gasoline prices now topping $3 a gallon in many parts of the country, inflation may finally be picking up. A report on Tuesday from the Labor Department is expected to show that consumer prices rose 2.7 percent in May from a year earlier, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, representing the fastest growth in over a year. Take gas prices out of the mix, however, and economists expect the core index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, to show just a 2.2 percent rise, more or less in line with the trend over the past six years.
— Ben Casselman
Economy
The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point when it concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday, bringing its benchmark rate to a range of 1.75 to 2 percent. It would be the seventh time the Fed has raised rates since the 2008 financial crisis, with the last increase in March. Investors will closely watch the news conference after the announcement by the Fed’s new chairman, Jerome H. Powell, for any signs of new worries over inflation or about the Trump administration’s trade policies.
— Jim Tankersley
Economy
The European Central Bank will discuss a timetable for winding down its eurozone stimulus program when it meets on Thursday in Riga, Latvia. The bank has been buying government and corporate bonds since early 2015 as a way to pump money into the eurozone economy. But inflation has been picking up, putting pressure on the central bank to dial back the de facto money printing. Top officials of the bank have signaled that the program will be the main topic at the meeting of the policy-setting Governing Council, which is making one of its periodic forays outside Frankfurt. A definitive announcement on the future of the stimulus measures may not come until July, however.
— Jack Ewing
Trade
The Trump administration plans to release by Friday the final list of the roughly $50 billion in Chinese products that would be subject to tariffs under the president’s trade plan. The release is likely to escalate the already-brewing trade war with China. White House officials have said that the tariffs will go into effect shortly after Friday, though that may be delayed to give negotiators from the two countries, who have been continuing trade talks through recent weeks, time to come up with a solution. Companies and trade organizations have been given the opportunity to weigh in on what effect of the tariffs could have since early April, when the administration released an initial list of 1,300 Chinese products that would be taxed.
— Ana Swanson
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