Bonds & Stocks
Investors fled into the safety of bonds while stocks fell, as a lurch toward higher interest rates together with weak euro-area activity data heightened anxiety that aggressive central bank policy will tip economies into recession. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 and the small-cap Russell 200 indexes both dropped more than 1%. Global stocks headed for their biggest weekly decline in more than three months. European shares slipped with defensive sectors such as health care gaining.
Economy
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sees diminishing risk for the US to fall into recession, and suggested that a slowdown in consumer spending may be the price to pay for finishing the campaign to contain inflation. On the chance of a recession, Yellen said "my odds of it, if anything, have gone down - because look at the resilience of the labor market, and inflation is coming down." She spoke in an interview with Bloomberg News Thursday.
World
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is establishing a new coalition of nations to counter the threat posed by illicit synthetic drugs, as the US presses China to stop exporting chemicals used in fentanyl. The new group will develop plans to target fentanyl, the biggest killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49, and other synthetic drugs including tramadol, methamphetamine, captagon, MDMA and ketamine. Blinken said he will host a virtual ministerial meeting on July 7 to launch the new coalition with dozens of nations and international organizations.