Inflation

For 2025, NRF said it is calling for total holiday season spending to come increase between 3.7%-to-4.2% annually, coming in between $1.01 trillion-to-$1.02 trillion. In 2024, holiday sales saw a 4.3% annual gain, to $976.1 billion.

The Federal Reserve said yesterday that it lowered the target rate, for the federal funds rate, which comes from its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) for the second consecutive month, dropping it by 0.25%, to 3.75%-to-4.0%, its lowest rate level since 2022.

Following comments made by Chairman Jay Powell in late August, suggesting that the Federal Reserve was possibly open to reducing the target rate for its federal funds rate, the Federal Reserve today decided to lower the rate, which comes from its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), to 4.0%-to-4.25%.

Logistics Management (LM) Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Matt Muenster, Chief Economist for Green Bay, Wisc.-based Breakthrough, an innovator in transportation management, dedicated to creating transparent and fair strategies for the world’s leading shippers. Muenster provided Berman with an overview of trade and tariffs, the industrial economy, and Peak Season, among other topics. 

The Federal Reserve said yesterday that it has decided to maintain the target rate for its federal funds rate, which comes from the Federal Reserve Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) at 4.25%-to-4.5%.

As was widely expected, the Federal Reserve said yesterday that it will not make any changes to its federal funds rate, which comes from the Federal Reserve Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), announcing that it again decided to leave the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25%-to-4.5%.

The economy ended 2024 in good shape but FTR warned it was overly dependent on consumer spending. That carried over to Q1 hard data except for imports/inventories.

The Federal Reserve announced it again decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25%-to-4.5%.

For February, the most recent month for which data is available, the TCI reading headed up to -0.21, marking an improvement over January’s -2.56 reading.

As United States-driven tariff-related actions continue to dominate the narrative in supply chain and freight transportation circles, leading to a new “Trade War,” it is not an understatement to say it has brought with it a sense of economic uncertainty, and unease regarding macroeconomic conditions.

In this podcast Armada Corporate Intelligence Managing Director Keith Prather addressed various topics, including: the current state of the freight economy; tariffs and their impact on the supply chain; inventories and imports; and 2025 Peak Season prospects. 

After making three rate cuts in 2024, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said earlier today it has decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25%-to-4.5%.

In this podcast, Breakthrough's Muenster addressed various topics related to the state of the freight economy, including: the freight economy; tariffs; manufacturing; capacity; inflation; demand patterns; and pricing and rates, among others.  

The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said it decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by 0.25% to 4.25%-to-4.5%. This was preceded by a September’s 0.5% reduction, to 4.75%-to-5%, which marked the first time there had been a rate cut in four years, with the last one coming in 2020, during the pandemic, as well as a 0.25% cut, to 4.5%-to-4.75% made in November.

Many businesses are focused on international expansion, personalized customer service, and creative discounts to overcome inflation and tight spending.