Taking the reins: Jerome Powell has been sworn in as the 16th chairman of the Federal Reserve in a brief ceremony in the Fed’s board room. In a short video message, Powell pledges to “support continued economic growth, a healthy job market and price stability.” Powell succeeds Janet Yellen, the first woman to lead the nation’s central bank in its 100 year history. President Donald Trump picked Powell after deciding to break with recent tradition and not offer Yellen a second four-year term. Read more.
On the way down: Friday’s stock sell-off continued this morning as the Dow Jones industrial average flirted with a more than 300-point drop in early trading, The Washington Post reports. Today’s pullback comes on the heels of Friday’s 666-point Dow decline, the sixth-highest point drop in Dow history but only around 2.5% from its lofty highs. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down four of the last five sessions heading into today. The technology-laden Nasdaq was down six of its last eight sessions as markets opened this morning. Read more.
Charges declined: Fearing that a plunge in the value of virtual currencies will leave customers unable to repay debts, banks in the U.S. and Britain have banned the use of credit cards to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Reuters reports. The concerns arise from customers using credit cards to fund accounts on online exchanges which are then used to purchase the digital currencies. The bans extends only to credit card purchases. Read more.
