Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled central bank officials are on course to cut interest rates in September unless inflation progress stalls, citing risks of further labor-market weakening.

Powell said policymakers are moving closer to lowering borrowing costs from a more than two-decade high, highlighting a growing confidence at the Fed to dial back its restraints on the economy. He was careful, however, not to wed officials to a rate reduction should price data prove disappointing in the coming months.

The Federal Open Market Committee held the federal funds rate in a range of 5.25% to 5.5% on Wednesday, a level they have maintained since last July.

“The question will be whether the totality of the data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks are consistent with rising confidence on inflation and maintaining a solid labor market,” Powell told reporters Wednesday. “If that test is met, a reduction in our policy rate could be on the table as soon as the next meeting in September.”

Powell framed the labor market as solid but slowing. Hiring has moderated, and the unemployment rate has ticked up to 4.1% — the highest since 2021 but still a historically low level. Layoffs remain modest.

But he said it doesn’t need to soften more for the Fed to reach its 2% inflation goal.

Intel to cut roughly 15,000 jobs

Chipmaker Intel is cutting 15% of its massive workforce — about 15,000 jobs — as it tries to turn its business around to compete with more successful rivals like Nvidia and AMD.

In a memo to staff members, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said Thursday the company plans to save $10 billion in 2025.

“Simply put, we must align our cost structure with our new operating model and fundamentally change the way we operate,” he wrote in the memo published to Intel’s website. “Our revenues have not grown as expected — and we’ve yet to fully benefit from powerful trends, like AI. Our costs are too high, our margins are too low.”

The job cuts come in the heels of a disappointing quarter and forecast for the iconic chip maker founded in 1968 at the start of the PC revolution.

Gelsinger wrote that Intel will announce an “enhanced retirement offering” for eligible employees and offer an application program for voluntary departures.

Intel had 124,800 employees as of the end of 2023 according to a regulatory filing.

CrowdStrike sued by investors after global tech outage

Investors are suing CrowdStrike after the company’s software update caused nationwide technology outages two weeks ago.

The suit accuses CrowdStrike of lying to investors by claiming its technology had been “validated, tested and certified.”

CrowdStrike’s stock price predictably tanked after the July 19 outage disrupted various services across the nation, from flights to court dates to hospital appointments.

The company eventually blamed the outage on a bug in its latest update, which it pushed to millions of customers. Approximately 8.5 million computers crashed because of the bad data from CrowdStrike.

Back in March, CrowdStrike CEO and founder George Kurtz assured investors in a conference call that the company’s software had been rigorously tested, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs accuse CrowdStrike and Kurtz of lying to mislead investors and pump up the stock price.

Taco Bell expanding artificial intelligence in drive-thru lanes

Taco Bell is planning to expand its use of artificial intelligence in drive-thru lanes at hundreds of their restaurants across the country, according to an announcement Wednesday.

Yum Brands, the parent company of the popular Mexican fast-food chain, said they aim to implement the technology at numerous locations in the U.S. before the end of 2024, and globally in the future.

Customers at these restaurants will interface with computers as they place their orders, an idea the company believes will ease workloads, reduce wait times and improve order accuracy, according to the news release.

The voice AI technology has been slowly rolled out over the past two years and has already been in use at Taco Bell locations in 13 different states. The company also opened its first-ever completely digital restaurant in New York City’s Time Square in April.

Compiled from Bloomberg, Associated Press and New York Daily News reports.