American credit card defaults have surged to the highest levels since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, as consumers continue to grapple with years of high inflation. In the first three quarters of 2024, credit card lenders wrote off $46 billion in delinquent loan balances, marking a 50 percent increase from the same period last year. These write-offs, considered a highly monitored measure of loan distress, are the highest since 2010, according to industry data gathered by BankRegData.
U.S. stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, erasing earlier gains after the Federal Reserve announced a 25 basis point rate cut and projected a slower pace of rate reductions for next year.
The Federal Reserve made its third consecutive interest rate cut on Wednesday, reducing its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point. The move, widely anticipated by investors and financial markets, brings the federal funds rate to a target range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent. Since beginning its rate cuts in September, the Fed has now lowered rates by a total of 100 basis points, or one percentage point.
Inflation rose in November at the fastest pace in four months, marking the second straight month of acceleration. The Department of Labor reported Wednesday that the consumer price index (CPI) increased by 2.7% over the past year, matching economists' forecasts. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, climbed 3.3% year-over-year.
All three major U.S. stock indexes closed at record highs on Wednesday, fueled by a strong rally in technology shares and encouraging comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Salesforce’s positive earnings report and upbeat market sentiment contributed to the surge, while Powell’s remarks on the economy provided an additional boost.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) declared in a report titled "Modernizing Financial Markets with Wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (wCBDC)" that at least 98% of the "global economy’s central banks are researching, experimenting, piloting or deploying central bank digital currency (CBDC) to determine how to modernize the capabilities of and improve access to central bank money (CeBM)."
