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tion reports, citing an internal memo. The company previously warned about the layoffs, targeting "low performers" in January. Affected employees will be cut off from internal systems within an hour and notified by email about their severance. Other tech companies including Amazon and Salesforce have either planned or already carried out job cuts as Silicon Valley increases spending on AI technology.
Inflation fears have driven consumer sentiment to a seven-month low, stoked by the threat of tariffs on many U.S. trading partners. Consumers are expecting prices to rise an annual 4.3% this year, the University of Michigan reported Friday — a full percentage point more than last month. Higher prices discourage spending, a factor reflected in the 12-percentage drop in the report's gauge for buying conditions. Expectations for personal finances also hit their lowest since October 2023.
A Federal judge on Friday ordered a temporary pause to the Trump administration's directive to place thousands of employees from the U.S. Agency for International Development on administrative leave. Judge Carl Nichols issued the ruling in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after hearing arguments from the Trump administration and two federal worker advocacy groups. Over 2,000 USAID employees were scheduled to be put on leave Friday night. President Trump earlier on Friday called for the agency to be shut down entirely.
The stars are out for Super Bowl LIX — especially in brands' big-budget ads. This year's commercials lean heavily on celebrities, humor and nostalgia to make an impression. Among the ads already creating buzz: Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal's "When Harry Met Sally" reunion for Hellmann's, and the return of Ben Affleck's DunKings for Dunkin. Other ads will feature stars Glenn Powell, Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Pratt, as well as singers Charlie XCX and Seal — as a seal.
The British government has ordered Apple to provide a backdoor through which it could access users' data, according to anonymous sources cited by The Washington Post and Bloomberg. The still-undisclosed order would provide U.K. authorities with access to encrypted material that users have uploaded to the cloud, according to the Post, which said the order "has no known precedent in major democracies." Neither Apple nor the U.K.'s Home Office have commented on the reports.
Nippon Steel will invest in U.S. Steel instead of buying the company, President Trump said on Friday. The announcement during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba comes after former President Joe Biden blocked Nippon’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel in January over national security concerns. U.S. Steel and Nippon are challenging Biden’s decision in court. Meanwhile, Cleveland-Cliffs is working with Nucor on a potential bid for U.S. Steel.
U.S. car buyers thinking about purchasing Tesla’s Model X can now expect to pay more. The EV maker has increased pricing on the cars by $5,000, Reuters reports, citing Tesla’s website. As of Thursday, the all-wheel drive Model X carries a price tag of $84,990. The X is only the latest Tesla vehicle to get more expensive; in December, the automaker hiked the Model S by $5,000. Meanwhile, Tesla’s car sales in China are falling amid rising competition.
Another prominent company is abandoning its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. According to a report by the Financial Times, Accenture wrote in a memo to employees that it is “sunsetting” its DEI goals and that the consultancy’s diversity targets, set in 2017, have been “largely achieved.” The news comes alongside observations that Amazon removed DEI references from its annual results. Also this week, Google reportedly scrapped its diversity hiring targets and Pinterest cited anti-DEI movements as a potential business risk.
The US economy added jobs at a slower pace than economists expected last month, and annual revisions to the government’s data showed hiring gains in 2024 were more muted than previously thought. But under the hood, analysts say January’s data still paints a picture of a healthy and resilient labor market. That’s giving market watchers more confidence that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady for now.
The US economy added 143,000 jobs in January, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure was below the consensus call for 170,000 jobs, according to FactSet. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.0% from 4.1%; economists expected it to remain at 4.1%.
“Today’s data sends a moderately bullish signal about the strength of the labor market,” says Preston Caldwell, senior US economist at Morningstar. “With the state of the labor market looking solid, the Fed has no urgency to cut in its next meeting.”
Monthly Payroll Change
Annual Revisions Were Expected
Caldwell says the downward revisions to nonfarm payroll employment growth were widely expected and smaller than preliminary estimates suggested. “The employment level in March 2024 was reduced by 589,000 jobs, a smaller reduction than the 818,000 in the preliminary announcement last August,” he explains.
At the same time, Caldwell points out that recent data shows an acceleration in that measure: “Three-month growth in nonfarm employment stands at 1.8% annualized as of January 2025, up from a recent nadir of 0.6% in August 2024.” That’s the fastest rate of growth since June 2023.
January Jobs Report Key Stats
- Total nonfarm payrolls rose by 143,000 versus an upward-revised 307,000 in December.
- The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.0% from 4.1% in December.
- Average hourly wages rose by 0.5% to $35.87 after rising 0.25% in December.
Job growth in January was led by the healthcare, retail, and social assistance categories, according to the BLS. The economy lost jobs in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas industries. Caldwell points out that hiring in healthcare and leisure has been especially strong over the past three months, growing at a 3.2% annualized pace.
Unemployment Rate Ticks Lower
Caldwell observes that the unemployment rate fell to 4.0% in January, and it has now averaged 4.1% over the past three months. That’s in line with the 4.1% average for the last three months ending in October 2024.
Friday’s jobs report also brought revisions to the household survey of employment, which is used to calculate the unemployment rate. The BLS said these revisions were large compared with previous years, in part because of a major upward revision to the size of the US population by the Census Bureau. “This revision was long overdue, as many analysts argued the census was underestimating immigration,” Caldwell explains.
Wage Growth Accelerates
Friday’s report showed that average hourly wages in the United States rose by 17 cents from November, or 0.5%, to $35.87. Analysts watch this metric closely for any evidence that rising wages are adding to inflationary pressures on the economy.
Caldwell doesn’t believe the January jump in wages is cause for concern. “Other wage growth measures like the Employment Cost Index continue to trend down, so this is nothing alarming,” he says. “Wage growth is not far from the 3.5% pace consistent with the Fed’s 2.0% inflation target.”
Monthly Wage Growth
When Will the Fed Cut Rates Again?
Analysts characterized Friday’s jobs report as more evidence that the Fed will keep rate cuts on hold for now. A healthy labor market means central bankers have more leeway to keep interest rates higher while inflation remains sticky and Washington policy remains uncertain. While falling inflation could still tip the scales toward cutting, Caldwell says, “today’s news makes a cut less likely.”
Bond futures traders now see a roughly 6.5% chance that the central bank will cut rates at its next meeting in March, according to the CME FedWatch tool. That’s down from a 16% chance yesterday and 36% a month ago.
Federal-Funds Rate Target Expectations for March 19, 2025 Meeting
In a letter Thursday night, the Trump administration directed states to stop spending money for EV charging infrastructure, funds they were allocated under former President Joe Biden. Trump has slammed federal funding for electric vehicle chargers as “an incredible waste of taxpayer dollars.”
The administration may need an act of Congress for this, and it’s unclear if there will be one. Industry leaders say customer demand will continue to drive growth in the charging network, regardless of federal funding.
The Tesla Supercharger network — led by CEO Elon Musk, now a prominent member of Trump’s inner circle — itself has received millions of dollars through the program that was just halted. But it also has a massive footprint of chargers across the country. Tesla will continue expanding its network regardless of federal money — and likely still benefit from its competitors receiving fewer funds.
What is President Trump trying to do with EV charging?
On his first day in office ,Trump paused billions of dollars in funding for a nationwide buildout of fast electric car chargers that had been allocated to states through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula program.
Then the Federal Highway Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation that administers NEVI funding, told states Thursday to stop carrying out their plans pending new guidelines. It’s part of the broader effort to dismantle many environmental policies and incentives put in place by the Biden administration.
Some states, including Alabama and Rhode Island, already had suspended their programs with the Inauguration Day order, but Thursday’s directive is a further push from the Trump administration to halt federal efforts to electrify the roads and reduce planet-warming emissions from transportation.
States that currently have NEVI-funded projects up and running mostly have been reimbursed by the federal government. But the new memo means states with projects in the works, or those currently contracting for them, have to come to a screeching halt, and they don’t know if or when they will be able to proceed and request reimbursement.
Why does this effort matter for EV drivers in the U.S.?
NEVI was created through the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed by Congress in 2021, to fill gaps in the EV charging infrastructure network. For example, before, it might not have penciled out for a private company to install a charger along a rural highway with little traffic versus in a busy city, so this funding is an incentive to electrify those neglected regions.
NEVI also addresses the concern many car buyers have for road trips where charging stations are too far apart.
The NEVI program awards state $5 billion over five years, but they’ve struggled with permitting delays, complicated electrical upgrades, and contracting.
Estimates suggest $3.3 billion of NEVI funding had already gone out the door to states.
Legal challenges for charging stations along highways
This announcement creates uncertainty, said Ryan Gallentine, managing director at business association Advanced Energy United.
“Most of the unawarded money is sitting in state Department of Transportation bank accounts ready to be spent,” Gallentine said in a statement. States are under no obligation to stop these projects based solely on this announcement, he said. “We call on state DOTs and program administrators to continue executing this program until new guidance is finalized.”
Others say the effort is sure to start legal battles.
“There’s no legal basis” for stopping plans that have already been approved and funded, said Andrew Wishnia, former deputy assistant secretary for climate policy at the DOT who helped author the NEVI program.
Regardless, Loren McDonald, chief analyst at Paren, a company that tracks EV charging data, emphasized EV range concerns will linger. “If you don’t have convenient access either where you live or where you work or in between, why would you get an EV? It just doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Money that was leftover after states met their highway obligations was meant to fill other gaps in charging: areas where there are low rates of EVs, including low-income areas or areas with a lot of apartment buildings where it is hard for people to charge.
What’s next for U.S. highway EV charging?
The federal buildout is not the only or even the central effort to build EV charging across the nation. Private companies have collectively spent billions on this infrastructure.
Industry leaders say that the demand from drivers for EV chargers will propel companies to build more of them. “I think the trend will continue. Maybe it’ll slow down over the next four years … but it’s going to continue,” said Bassem Ammouri, the chief operating officer at EV Connect, a major EV charging platform.
The fear for some is that delaying critical charging infrastructure could have a domino effect on the EV transition because it could slow sales, said Matt Stephens-Rich, director of programs at the non-partisan group Electrification Coalition.
“As the world is shifting to electric vehicles, any slowdown will put the U.S. auto industry further behind,” Stephens-Rich said.President Donald Trump has paused imposing tariffs on small-value packages arriving from China, apparently to give federal agencies time to sort out how to process millions of such shipments that have come through the U.S. border every day without paying taxes.
The executive order, dated Wednesday, didn’t say when the pause would end but said it would cease when the Department of Commerce could put in place “adequate systems” to “fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue.”
“It’s just showing we’re moving fast, and the implications are not fully understood when some of these regulations are put in place,” said John Lash, group vice president of product strategy at the supply chain platform e2open, pointing out that Trump’s order affected huge numbers of small packages, many in transit.
“The volumes are absolutely incredible,” Lash said. “And all of a sudden, they go from not requiring filing (for tariffs) ... to actually requiring full filing, which is a complicated task.”
Ending tariff exemptions on low-cost packages from China has broad bipartisan support in Washington, and Trump pulled the plug when he raised tariffs on Chinese goods by 10% earlier this week. Goods sent through duty-free packages became subject not only to existing tariffs — 25% for many Chinese products — but also the new 10%.
It marks another pause on Trump’s policies weeks into his second administration, including orders to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada that were suspended after the two allies took steps to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking.
The U.S. Postal Service, which would be burdened with collecting tariffs on small packages, on Tuesday announced it would not accept parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong, only to reverse the decision the next day. It said it would work with Customs and Border Protection to implement a collection process for the new tariffs.
“It’s one of those things where you put in any change so quickly it catches people unprepared,” Lash said.
Introduced in 1938, the so-called de minimis exception was intended to facilitate the flow of small packages valued at no more than $5, the equivalent of about $106 today. The threshold increased to $200 in 1994 and $800 in 2016. But the rapid rise of cross-border e-commerce, driven by China, has challenged the intent of the decades-old customs exception rule.
Chinese exports of low-value packages soared to $66 billion in 2023, up from $5.3 billion in 2018, according to a report released last week by the Congressional Research Service. And the U.S. market has been a major destination.
In 2023, for the first time, more than 1 billion such packages came through U.S. customs, up from 134 million in 2015. By the end of last year, Customs and Border Protection said it was processing about 4 million small shipments a day, many of which came from China through online retail platforms such as Shein and Temu.
Critics said the practice had allowed not only tariff evasion, but also the flow of unsafe products such as counterfeits and illicit drugs into the U.S. Supporters argued that it helped keep prices affordable for U.S. consumers and small businesses.
After Trump threw out the exemption, some analysts noted that the policy shift could lead to higher prices and delivery delays as U.S. customs officials cope with an onslaught of packages to scrutinize.
“We are talking about millions of packages every week that currently just basically get treated like domestic shipping,” said Neil Saunders, a managing director with research firm GlobalData.
He said Temu has already adjusted by increasing its warehousing capabilities in the U.S. during the past year and shipping products in containers.
Lash said the end to the de minimis exception rule would change the cross-border e-commerce model when tariffs and filing paperwork drive up costs, prompting overseas sellers to turn to bulk shipping.
The Trump administration on Friday doubled the number of news organizations it is evicting from their workspaces at the Pentagon to rotate in more friendly outlets.
CNN, The Washington Post, the Hill, and War Zone will be asked to leave their spaces, with Newsmax, the Washington Examiner, the Daily Calle,r and the Free Press moving in, according to a memo from John Ullyot, acting assistant to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The decision, which the Pentagon Press Association called “unreasonable,” continues a pattern of hostility toward journalists by the administration, which this week said it was looking to cancel media subscriptions paid for by federal government agencies.
“By turning over the office space loaned to you by the secretary, you will ensure that other outlets will enjoy the same opportunity to cover our nation’s finest up close from office spaces inside the walls of the Pentagon this year and each year going forward,” Ullyot wrote.
It’s common for news outlets to occupy space in places like the White House and state Capitols for quicker access to officials they need to do their jobs, and get stories out quickly. The Pentagon isn’t preventing the ousted outlets from covering them, just making it more difficult for them to do their jobs.
In a statement, CNN said that its “mission to report on the Department of Defense, U.S. military and Trump administration will continue regardless of office arrangements. We will not be deflected from our duty to hold all three fairly and fully to account.”
Similarly, The Washington Post said it would continue to cover the Pentagon independently and fairly, regardless of desk space.
The Pentagon announced its new rotation policy a week ago, saying that NBC News, the New York Times, NPR and Politico would be required to vacate. Their spaces are to be taken by One America News Network, the New York Post, Breitbart News and Huffpost.
The Times, Washington Post, CNN, and Politico are each organizations that President Donald Trump has been critical of. Each of the outlets rotated this week has been more supportive in their coverage.
None of the outlets offered prime real estate by the administration has requested more space from the Pentagon Press Association, which generally works to get room for reporters. Some are already in the Pentagon, the association said.
The association said in a statement Friday that it was “shocked and deeply disappointed” by the decision.
“Instead of reconsidering its approach after good faith outreach this week from more than 20 news organizations, the Defense Department appears to be doubling down on an unreasonable policy toward news outlets that have covered the U.S. military for decades,” the association said.
The association said it does not believe there are space constraints at the Pentagon, and its offer to find room for everyone “was discarded.”
Many news outlets with Pentagon workspaces have invested heavily in them, to get reliable Internet access or, in the case of television networks, wiring that enables them to instantly deliver live reports during urgent news stories.
Ullyot rejected press arguments, saying most outlets covering the Pentagon have no office space, and some television outlets have no trouble carrying in their equipment each day.