Yahoo Finance Fed Chair Powell’s testimony, U.S. proposed TikTok ban, Adidas slashes dividend: 3 things to know
Yahoo Finance Live’s Julie Hyman summarizes three key topics to watch for this morning.
Video transcript
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JULIE HYMAN: Today is International Women's Day. We're celebrating the day by featuring women guests across all sectors, CEOs, activists, politicians, and economists. Our goal at Yahoo Finance every day is to bring you diverse voices that reflect our diverse society and to normalize seeing smart people of all stripes talking about business and finance.
And speaking of business and finance, let's get right to the three things you need to know to start off your morning. That guy right there, first thing you need to know, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, he heads back to Capitol Hill today for his second day of hearings. And so far, he made it clear that the central bank is prepared to aggressively raise interest rates in order to tame stubborn inflation.
Stocks skidded on the news, and bond yields surged. The two-year US Treasury yield went above 5% for the first time since 2007. A closely watched part of the yield curve saw its deepest inversion in over 40 years. What does that mean? Some economists consider that a recession indicator.
Second thing you need to know, the White House has set the stage for a TikTok ban. The Biden administration has backed a bill that could give the president the power to ban the social media app in the US. The legislation was introduced yesterday by senators Mark Warner and John Thune. And this move comes as concerns rise around the app doubling as a way to spy on Americans.
Meanwhile, a TikTok executive in Europe this morning is reacting to similar concerns there with new data protection measures. Third thing you need to know, Adidas. or Adidas, grappling with the Yeezy fallout. The athletic apparel giant stuck with $1.3 billion of unsold merchandise after ending its partnership with Ye, of course, formerly known as Kanye West. Today it posted a loss of more than 700 million euros and slashed its dividend. Adidas's new CEO floated several possibilities for all that Yeezy gear, including maybe selling it and donating the proceeds to charity.
