By Maria Eloisa Capurro | Bloomberg
Americans’ view of the labor market grew somewhat more pessimistic in May, with the perceived prospects for job seekers hitting their lowest point this year, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey released Monday.
The survey also showed consumers’ inflation expectations remained largely unchanged from a month ago.
The report followed an unexpectedly strong employment report for May with job gains beating expectations. For Fed officials, the report put to rest for now concerns that the US labor market remained fragile and stoked worries over inflation. Policymakers’ preferred measure of inflation hit 3.8% in April, amid a spike in energy prices.
Fed officials are expected to hold interest rates steady when they meet on June 16-17 in Washington, their first gathering led by new Chairman Kevin Warsh.
The New York Fed report gave mixed signals about the labor market. The perceived probability of losing one’s job in the next 12 months rose in May by half a percentage point to 15.1%. Meanwhile, the perceived ability to find a job fell by 2.3 percentage points to 43.7%, the lowest reading since December.
Despite that, the expected quit rate — or the probability of leaving one’s job voluntarily in the next year, usually a sign of confidence in the labor market — rose in May to the highest since February of 2023. The increase was broad-based across age, education and income groups, the report said.
SpaceX IPO said to be well oversubscribed
SpaceX’s initial public offering is well oversubscribed as demand builds for a potentially record-setting debut.
Banks leading the offering by Elon Musk’s rocket, satellite and artificial intelligence company are expected to stop taking orders from institutional investors on Wednesday after the market closes in New York at 4 p.m., according to unnamed Bloomberg sources.
Closing the order books gives banks time to gauge demand ahead and advise the company on pricing. SpaceX’s IPO is expected to price June 11 and trade the following day. The company is offering 555.6 million shares at $135 each, which would raise about $75 billion, and value it at about $1.8 trillion.
Retail investors can still submit orders for SpaceX shares on some platforms beyond the Wednesday deadline. The company is allocating as much as 30% of the offering to retail, Bloomberg News has reported.
Anticipation is growing for the IPO which is expected to be the biggest ever, topping Saudi Aramco’s $29.4 billion debut in 2019.
FTX co-founder Bankman-Fried seeks Trump pardon
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried formally applied for a presidential pardon, more than two years after he was convicted over the multi-billion dollar collapse of his once-thriving cryptocurrency empire.
The 34-year-old submitted an application to the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney Office, according to the office’s website, requesting a “pardon after completion of sentence.”
Bankman-Fried has been using social media and interviews with conservative news outlets to angle for executive relief from President Donald Trump, whose embrace of the clemency power during his second term has benefitted dozens of white-collar defendants. Trump told the New York Times in January that he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 after he was convicted of orchestrating a fraud at FTX that cost lenders, customers and investors $10 billion.
Compiled from Bloomberg reports.