Trump Attacks Harris Over Race During Black Journalists Q&A
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The Federal Reserve clears the way to cut interest rates in September. And, why young professionals are launching their careers in some smaller southern cities. More companies are opening locations in these cities, in these areas. And more companies are expanding their recruiting of college students who go to school in those areas. Plus, Donald Trump attacked Kamala Harris over her race in a testy Q&A with Black journalists.

It's Wednesday, July 31st. I'm Francesca Fontana for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. ♪

The Federal Reserve is getting closer to lowering interest rates. Just not yet. Central bank officials today agreed to hold rates steady, but hinted that rate cuts are on the horizon. Fed Chair Jerome Powell at a news conference after the meeting said the Fed is getting closer to the point at which it'll be appropriate to reduce its policy rate, although it's still not quite at that point. 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. If that test is met, a reduction in our policy rate could be on the table as soon as the next meeting in September. Here to explain the Fed's decision is reporter Paul Kiernan.

So, Paul, we didn't get any big surprises with the Fed keeping rates where they are. What did we learn from the decision and Jerome Powell's comments? The main thing we learned is sort of what we suspected, which is that the Fed is kind of gearing up to cut interest rates in September. Powell's words were a move in September, quote, could be on the table, end quote. However, he stressed that it will still continue.

depend on the economic data moving in the sort of right direction. What events or other indicators will traders be watching between now and September? The two big ones, really. The immediate one is the jobs report that comes out on Friday. If job creation surges, if it's a really strong jobs report,

that won't necessarily change the Fed's thinking about the economy. If the unemployment rate rises somewhat sharply or if job creation goes way down, more than anything, it would be a sign that the Fed probably should have gone ahead and cut today. The second and probably more important data point that the Fed's going to be looking at is the monthly inflation report. So the next month that we have is for July. The Fed just needs to not see

some unexpected acceleration in price pressures. That was WSJ reporter Paul Kiernan. In the stock market, all three major indexes opened sharply higher and held on to gains after the Fed's policy decision. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.6 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.6 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2 percent, or about 99 points.

Speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists' annual convention, former President Donald Trump attacked Vice President Kamala Harris over her race, baselessly suggesting his election rival only began identifying as a black woman in recent years.

WSJ Elections editor Kimberly Johnson was in the room at the convention in Chicago, and she joins us now with more. Kimberly, what did you make of Trump's appearance today? I thought it was quite a shocking appearance. We know that Trump often says a lot of things that are false.

And what was the feeling in the room? You were there watching him speak. How was it?

were the other attendants, how were other journalists reacting? There was at many times a hushed silence in the room. And then there were points where people were yelling out,

at Trump because he was telling some of the falsehoods that we've seen him tell over and over again, such as things about immigration, January 6th. So it got really tense in the room and testy at times. We've heard or seen some contentious or testy back and forths, you know, as he attacked Kamala Harris, suggesting that

She was only identifying as a black woman for political gain. How was that received in the room and by the other panelists? Absolutely. That was really poorly received. That was probably the most shocking thing. It was something new, a new attack from Trump, where he said that he had known of Kamala Harris for many years and knew her as an Indian woman. And then he said, well, in recent years, she began to identify as black. That is shocking.

Absolutely false. Kamala Harris is of Jamaican and of Indian descent, and she herself identifies as a black woman. She attended college.

Howard University, one of the most storied historically Black colleges in the country. She's a member of AKA Historic Black Sorority. She has definitely identified as a Black woman. And it really took the Black journalist by surprise, I think, in the room when he said that. He wanted to know if she was identifying as Indian or Black. And you actually can identify as both Indian and Black.

That was WSJ Elections Editor Kimberly Johnson. NABJ said it had extended an invitation to Harris, but according to a person familiar with the matter, she offered to make a virtual appearance instead of attending in person due to scheduling conflicts. This person said NABJ declined. NABJ President Ken Lemon said that the association and Harris' team are in discussion for a Q&A session, either in person or virtually, in September.

From heat waves to flooding rains, there's been a lot of extreme weather this summer. How have you been affected by extreme weather? And what questions do you have about what companies are doing to counter those effects? Send a voice memo to WNPOD at WHJ.com or leave a voicemail with your name and location at 212-416-4328. We might use it on the show. Coming up, the cities where 20-somethings are launching their careers. That's after the break. ♪

We could all use more time. Amazon Business offers smart business buying solutions so you can spend more time growing your business and less time doing the admin. I can see why they call it smart. Learn more at amazonbusiness.com.

Recent college grads looking to start their career have been having a rough time landing entry-level jobs. And it's no wonder. Employers have scaled back their hiring for those white-collar positions, especially as some of them embrace artificial intelligence. But there's still hope for these 20-somethings. According to a new study by the payroll company ADP, southern cities like Raleigh, North Carolina, Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia are in the top five most promising locations to find work for fresh college grads.

My colleague, Anthony Bansi, spoke with our workplace reporter, Ray Smith. So, Ray, these places are much smaller than New York, where you can probably get a higher starting salary. What exactly distinguishes these places like Raleigh, Austin, Atlanta from cities like New York City? Why is that not as attractive?

It's basically the lower cost of living. You can get more bang for your buck, literally, in these areas. And with the wages there as high as they are, you can afford, for instance, to buy a car or buy a house where that might be off limits or take a little longer if you lived on the coast, for instance. The South and the Mid-Atlantic have long had lower cost of living. But what's different now is the preponderance of job openings for young grads.

And the growth that's happening in those cities, more companies are opening locations in these cities, in these areas. And more companies are expanding their recruiting of college students who go to school in those areas or from elsewhere trying to lure them over to the state. In terms of what these cities are offering, what are local businesses doing to kind of

drum up an influx of recent grads. Basically, they're touting what their cities have to offer. In a lot of cases, these companies are saying people may overlook that these cities have a great quality of living. People feel like they can take walks without having to be nervous about whether they're going to be mugged or something like that. There's more green space and there's lots of nature or there's a cultural scene that

In Raleigh, for instance, the Chamber of Commerce told me about their burgeoning music scene and new restaurants with Michelin-starred chefs. And so there's a lot that these areas say that they have to offer that people may not be aware of. Things that young people would be interested that are not as expensive as in New York or in San Francisco. The lower cost of living is a big attraction. That was WSJ Workplace reporter Rae Smith.

speaking to our colleague Anthony Bansi. And you can listen to more about this story from Ray in today's Your Money Briefing podcast.

In corporate news, Meta platforms posted rising sales in its latest quarter, saying its digital advertising revenue grew rapidly even as the social media company's investments in artificial intelligence and the so-called Metaverse weighed on profits. Meta's rising expenses come from the Facebook parent company's all-in approach to the AI revolution. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said that Meta AI is on track to be the world's most used AI assistant by the end of the year.

Bill Ackman is pulling a U-turn on his new investment fund. The billionaire investor announced today that he's pausing the initial public offering of a new fund aimed at everyday investors, after a lack of demand forced him to dramatically shrink his fundraising target. Ackman originally aimed to raise about $25 billion in the offering, hoping to capitalize on his social media celebrity, before lowering the target to around $2 billion this week.

In a press release, Ackman said he's re-evaluating the structure of the closed-end fund, Pershing Square USA, to address concerns from potential investors. Delta Airlines chief executive Ed Bastian said the company took a half-a-billion-dollar hit from the CrowdStrike tech outage.

The airline has been struggling to bounce back from the outage, which deeply disrupted its operations, with more than 5,000 flight cancellations over several days. Bastian said in a CNBC interview today that the airline has no choice but to seek to recover its losses. According to letters reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Delta has hired prominent litigator David Boies, chairman of the firm Boies, Schiller, Flexner, and notified CrowdStrike and Microsoft to prepare for litigation.

Microsoft didn't comment, and CrowdStrike said in a statement it's aware of the reporting but has no knowledge of a lawsuit and has no further comment. And Boeing is bringing on a new pilot to steer it through its storm of problems. The jetmaker is hiring Robert Kelly Ortberg as its next CEO, picking an aerospace veteran to steer the company through manufacturing and regulatory issues.

Ortberg ran one of Boeing's big suppliers, Rockwell Collins, until 2018, when it merged with another aerospace manufacturer and eventually ended up part of RTX. Boeing has been grappling with quality problems, production slowdowns, high-stakes labor negotiations, and a plunging share price.

And that's What's News for this Wednesday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé and Anthony Bansi with supervising producer Michael Kosmides. I'm Francesca Fontana for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.

We could all use more time. Amazon Business offers smart business buying solutions so you can spend more time growing your business and less time doing the admin. I can see why they call it smart. Learn more at amazonbusiness.com.