The U.S. central bank early this year suspended its three-year monetary policy tightening campaign, dropping forecasts for any interest rate increases this year. The Fed raised borrowing costs four times in 2018.
Gross domestic product increased at a 3.1 percent annualized rate, the government said in its second reading of first-quarter GDP on Thursday. That was slightly down from the 3.2 percent pace estimated last month. The economy grew at a 2.2 percent pace in the October-December period.
A gauge of inflation tracked by the Fed increased at a 1 percent rate last quarter, instead of the previously reported 1.3 percent pace. Fed policymakers are likely to shrug off the last quarter’s growth spurt and focus on the weak domestic demand and inflation when they meet next month.
— Reuters
PACKAGE SERVICES
FedEx to expand to seven-day delivery
FedEx plans to deliver packages seven days a week starting in January as it tries to keep up with the continuing boom in online shopping.
The company is also taking back nearly 2 million daily deliveries to homes that are currently handled by the U.S. Postal Service in a move it says will increase the efficiency of its own network. The Memphis-based company announced the changes Thursday.
It was just in September that FedEx expanded to six days a week for most of the year, although it had previously run on some Saturdays and Sundays around Christmas. The company said it will add year-round Sunday service for “a majority” of the U.S. population.
President and Chief Operating Officer Raj Subramaniam said the change will increase the company’s ability to meet the demands of e-commerce retailers and online shoppers.
FedEx expects the volume of small parcels for delivery in the United States will double by 2026.
— Associated Press
Also in Business
The U.S. government's highway safety agency is investigating whether a five-year-old General Motors seat belt recall fixed the problem. The recall covered about 1.4 million Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook SUVs from the 2009 through 2014 model years. GM originally issued the recall because a flexible steel cable connecting the front seat belts to the vehicle could separate. If that happens, it may not restrain a person in a crash.
T wo of America's largest dollar store chains warned on Thursday that rising tariffs due to escalating trade tensions between Washington and Beijing would hit U.S. shoppers, after reporting strong quarterly sales. Executives from both Dollar Tree and Dollar General fielded questions related to tariffs from analysts on their post-earnings call and said increasing the levies would impact their businesses and consumers.
Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn is challenging Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s $38 billion takeover of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., calling the transaction "fundamentally misguided and hugely overpriced" in a lawsuit that seeks corporate records related to the deal. Icahn holds more than $1.6 billion of Occidental stock, according to the suit filed in a Delaware court Thursday.
Google's self-driving vehicle division says it's bringing autonomous trucks to the Phoenix area. Waymo announced Wednesday that its self-driving tractor-trailers will start driving on freeways this week and will expand to more routes over time. Waymo's self-driving passenger vehicles are ubiquitous in eastern Phoenix and its suburbs, where the company conducts extensive testing and runs a taxi service. The company says the big trucks use the same sensors as passenger vehicles but they're configured differently.
Coming today
8:30 a.m.: Commerce Department releases personal income and spending for April.
— From news services