Economic & Market Watch

In the News

Economy

• The Consumer Price Index report is set to be released this Tuesday and is expected to provide an early picture of the potential impact of tariffs on prices.
• Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said the latest jobs report suggests that the apparently weakening labor market outweighs the risk of higher inflation ahead, saying she supports three rate cuts over the remaining Fed meetings this year.

Markets

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures dropped to just over $64/barrel, driven by market expectations that efforts to resolve the war in Ukraine could lead to the easing of sanctions on Russian oil.
• American companies are buying back their own stock at a record pace, boosting their balance sheets and fueling the stock market rally. Stock buybacks are projected to reach over $1.1 trillion in 2025, which would be an all-time high.

Current Events

• U.S. chip makers NVIDIA and AMD agreed to pay 15% of their revenue from Chinese AI chip sales to the U.S. government in order to secure export licenses.
• President Trump urged China to increase soybean purchases from the U.S. While China bought over half of all U.S. soybean exports last year, recent figures show that Chinese soybean purchases declined 51% in the first half of 2025.

Meet the Team

CFC's economic research team—John Suter, Sam Kem and Antony Davies—share their expert, yet easily digestible, perspective on what you need to know.

Have feedback about the podcast? A topic you'd like the EMW team to cover? Get in touch at economicresearch@nrucfc.coop.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Trading Economics