what the audience at cpac is hearing. plus we have a stunningly quick verdict in the alex murdaugh murder trial. we ll get expert analysis on this case in just a moment. and also ahead secretary of state antony blinken meet briefly with his russian counterpart for the first time since the start of the ukraine war. good morning and welcome to way too early on this friday, march 3rd. i m jonathan lemire, thanks for starting your day with us. we ll begin in south carolina where a jury has found disbarred lawyer alex murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife and son. the state versus richard alexander murdaugh defendant, indictment for murder fc code 16-3 verdict guilty. the jury of seven men and five women deliberated for less than three hours before unanimously finding the 54-year-old guilty. murdaugh was also convicted of two counts of weapons possession. the defense and prosecution addressed reporters outside the courtroom. we re very disappointed with the verdict.
why the coffee giant is closing stores in several major cities and it s not about sales. and the trailblazing woman making nfl history announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening, everyone the government is putting another dismal number to what our family budgets are already telling us prices are still going up the rate of inflation in june ballooned to 9.1% over the same month last year. the highest peak since 1981 the cost of virtually everything up, from gas, up 60%, to groceries, up 12.2%. to the roofs over our heads climbing 5.5% last month president biden calling the numbers unacceptably high but also out of date, noting they do not fully reflect recent declines in gas prices still, it spells a gut check moment for the fed as it weighs more interest rate hikes, sure to hit home for american borrowers and potentially tipping the economy into a recession. tom costello has our report reporter: for anyone struggling with daily expenses, espec
control. inflation hit 8.6% last month, the hottest inflation since 1981. the fed meets later today. fed funds futures markets are pricing in 0.75 point rate hike to curb inflation. the wall street journal reporting the fed is likely to make a move larger than the 50 basis point move a few days ago. a terrible day yesterday, a terrible two days. cnn s claire severe webastian i london. is there stability in europe? a little bit more stability today in europe and asia as they continue to sort of digest the falls that we saw those inflation fears out of the u.s. a mixed picture. asia is now closed. tokyo is the outlier there. that economy vulnerable to monetary tightening in the u.s. japan is doing the opposite to try to maintain inflation there. the yen is around a 20-year low. again, the dollar, china rising despite renewed covid restrictions there. here in europe again a mixed picture. there is still they are digesting the worry, faster rate rises in the u.s. in europe,
i m here with richard follow . it s 5:00 in new york city and this is the five. so let the debate trash talk begin a. joe biden and donald trump are sharpening their attacks as they get ready to meet face-to-face for the presidential debate three days from now and simulcast on fox news pick the candidates are using wildly different prep strategies. sleepy joe is still hold up at summer camp david. the big guy surrounding himself with an army of advisors. a staggering 16 people are helping our elderly man with a poor memory get into top shape. one report claims that joe biden is doing mock debates and practising. on a stand for 90 minutes. the liberal media is also giving joe some pointers like how to smile and benefit from that new button. he s got resting old face. he needs to smile. when he smiles it goes away a little bit. i would say practice smiling. donald trump is a callous candidate but no audience takes a donald trump out of his comfort zone in this way. he
fundamentally fighting coming into 2023 is still very much an active issue. so i think what we ll see is some sort of attempt to balance those two issues. the high inflation on one hand and the risk of inflation on the other. and most are expecting a quarter point rate. a small but meaningful rate move at the meeting on wednesday. if the fed does decide to change course and press pause on the interest rate hikes, what would that mean on the fight against inflation? yeah. so one economist suggested that it would likely be what she called a pregnant pause. you would pause but suggest rates that you will raise rates in the future as soon as conditions are calm enough to do so. the idea is, you don t want it on the markets that this is over. that you ve give up on the inflation side of things. so there is a real risk that inflation could be a regular