professional judgment that they will be making. what this subggests, many peopl ask are we in the inflation, and at least on the employment side and labor market, we still have a healthy economy. and the president understands that in order to bring down inflation, the fed needs to cool the economy to some extent. the u.s. stock market also reacting to the latest inflation figure with all three major indexes closing down slightly on wednesday. we re now just hours away from a new trading day on wall street. here is a look at where the u.s. stock futures stand at this hour. dow, s&p and nasdaq all showing down in the red. now, heatwaves, flooding, wildfires. extreme weather events pounding people across the globe. next, how the climate crisis is affecting three continents at the same time. may affect blood pressure, they can t just take anything f for their pain. tylelenol® is the #1 dr. recommended pain relief brand
back to work, helping people deal with these increasing costs. you mentioned a moment ago the fed attempting to engineer a soft landing and avoiding a recession. does this report put more pressure on the fed to again raise interest rates at a historic level? so the fed is an independent agency, and i really do not want to speak to what they will or will not do. they need to have the space to read the data and make the professional judgment that they will be making. what this suggests, many people were asking are we in recession, what this suggests is at least on the employment side and the labor market we still have a very healthy economy. and you know, the president understands that in order to bring down inflation, the fed s going to needs to cool the economy to some extent. but what we re hoping and what the fed is hoping for is that we transition to the kind of economy where we see steady, sustainable growth, where we do
up. now 69.45. reporter: the u.s. headed towards a recession if it isn t already in one. top administration officials carefully treading around those suggestions. i don t want to say we will be in a recession because we are doing everything we can to get our economy and bring costs down. are we in recession? what this suggests on the employment side in the labor market we have a very healthy economy. reporter: the federal reserve has been quickly raising interest rates to try to cool the economy. the central bank widely expected to announce another major rate hike later this month. the president understands that in order to bring down inflation the fed is going to, you know, needs to cool the economy to some extent. now, on a day like today you really see what a uniquely challenging moment this is for president biden and his white house. we have a very strong labor market with strong job gains. the unemployment rate remains low, wages are going up but high
joining me now, dominic chu. is the fed walking a tightrope here? they need to raise rates to show they are taking it seriously, that they are now going to draw down. they don t want to send the country into a recession. economists are saying it s almost unavoidable now. at this point, that s the tough line here. the federal reserve has just two main objectives. that s price stability and maximum employment in this country. the employment side looks good. it s the inflation that has everybody worried. i fill up twice a week sometimes for gasoline. i know how much it s costing, more than last year. the issue right now is, it s not about whether the fed has to raise rates. it has to raise rates. the issue is how much? what does the future look like? how much do they have to raise rates at each meeting going for
commodity prices overall are going to put a strain on the economy. so you ve got a very mixed economic picture, good on the employment side, good on the economic growth side, but a real danger for inflation and the economy is still expected to moderate over the course of the year. that outlook has gotten cloudier as a result of this war, kate. that s a great point, john, thank you very much. as john is getting at, consumers pay more for basically everything. in the last two weeks, gas prices, especially have jumped staggering 78 cents given the war in ukraine. aaa reports the national average is 400, 400, it s $4, feels like 400 for many people. but vanessa yurkevich tracking this, what are you seeing out there? reporter: terrible is how one woman described these gas prices to me. we are at $4.32 a gallon nationwide. that is a new record. that s up 7 cents just overnight and as you mentioned, up almost