Stocks hit fresh records. I'm Henry Epp with the Marketplace Minute. Markets rose across the board. The S&P 500 climbed just over 1% to hit a record. The Nasdaq gained nearly 1.2% to a new high. The Dow was up 1.1%.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told members of Congress that the election won't be a factor in the central bank's interest rate decisions later this year. Powell was responding to a question about whether a potential rate cut in September might be viewed as political, just weeks away from the November election.
Wholesalers stocked up this spring. Inventories rose 0.6 percent in May, according to the Commerce Department. Inventories were especially boosted by the automotive sector, which saw an increase of 1.4 percent from April. And the maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce, then rehire a similar number of workers in a bid to invest in artificial intelligence. The company Intuit also plans to shut down two of its locations, one in Idaho and one in Canada.
I'm Henry App with the Marketplace Minute.