Officials at the Federal Reserve were split over the most likely trajectory for interest rates this year as opinions diverged over the economic impact of President Donald Trump’s policies, minutes from the central bank’s latest meeting showed.

The record of the June meeting, released Wednesday, underscored the high degree of support among policymakers up until this point for the Fed to take its time before restarting interest rate cuts that it paused in January.

Last month’s policy decision, which kept interest rates at 4.25% to 4.5%, was unanimously endorsed. According to the minutes, the decision reflected a widely held view that the Fed was “well positioned to wait for more clarity on the outlook for inflation and economic activity” given that the economy was still solid despite policy settings tuned to keep a lid on inflation.

But the discussion at the June gathering made clear that officials’ views have begun to splinter over the trajectory for interest rates in the coming months.

The minutes noted that most policymakers thought “some reduction” in interest rates would be appropriate on the basis that “upward pressure on inflation from tariffs may be temporary or modest, that medium- and longer-term inflation expectations had remained well anchored, or that some weakening of economic activity and labor market conditions could occur.”

“A couple” of policymakers indicated an openness to cut interest rates as soon as the next meeting in July, while another cohort thought the rates could stay on hold all year. Their argument reflected concern that “upside risks to inflation remained meaningful” as well as the possibility that the economy would remain “resilient.”

Projections released by the Fed in June reflected these divisions.

Over that same period, policymakers penciled in slower growth than they did three months earlier, as well as higher unemployment and higher inflation. That combination carries the whiff of stagflation, which would complicate the Fed’s policy decisions.

In the weeks since the last meeting, Fed Chair Jerome Powell defended the central bank’s wait-and-see approach to cutting interest rates even as he left the question of timing open-ended.

“We are going meeting by meeting,” Powell said on a panel with the heads of other leading central banks last week.

Only two officials have made a more explicit case for a cut as early as the next meeting at the end of this month. Christopher J. Waller, a governor, and Michelle W. Bowman, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, have argued that price pressures tied to tariffs may end up being more temporary than once feared.

— New York Times

Nvidia briefly passes $4 trillion in value

Silicon Valley chipmaker Nvidia on Wednesday became the first publicly traded company to surpass a $4 trillion market valuation, putting the latest exclamation point on the investor frenzy surrounding an artificial intelligence boom powered by its industry-leading processors.

Although Nvidia’s market value dipped back below $4 trillion by the time the stock market closed, reaching the milestone highlighted the upheaval being unleashed by an AI craze that’s widely viewed as the biggest tectonic shift in technology since Apple unveiled the first iPhone 18 years ago.

The ravenous appetite for Nvidia’s chips are the main reason that the company’s stock price increased by 10-fold since early 2023, catapulting its market value from about $400 billion to $4 trillion. After exceeding $4 trillion for the first time early Wednesday, Nvidia’s shares backtracked below that threshold at their closing price of $162.88.

X CEO Yaccarino to leave after two years

X CEO Linda Yaccarino said she’s stepping down after two bumpy years running Elon Musk’s social media platform.

Yaccarino posted a positive message Wednesday about her tenure at the company formerly known as Twitter and said “the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with” Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok. She did not say why she is leaving.

Musk responded to Yaccarino’s announcement with his own 5-word statement on X: “Thank you for your contributions.”

Musk hired Yaccarino, a veteran ad executive, in May 2023 after buying Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and cutting most of its staff. He said at the time that Yaccarino’s role would be focused mainly on running the company’s business operations, leaving him to focus on product design and new technology.

— From news services