Marketplace Morning Report
Weekdays during Morning Edition (6:51am and 8:51am)
Marketplace Morning Report is the morning sister program from the award-winning staff of Marketplace. Bringing you the morning business news "for the rest of us" in the time it takes you to drink your first cup of joe, MMR is a great way to start your day.
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We're less than a month away from graduation ceremonies at college campuses across the country. But the job market college grads are entering is an uncertain one, and the unemployment rate for young people with college degrees remains elevated. This morning, we hear one college senior's take on the slowing labor market and the emergence of AI. But first, the owners of a Brooklyn plant shop chat about navigating higher costs.
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New research shows more than a third of workers and retirees don’t think they will have enough money for their retirement years — that’s the highest proportion since 2017. Lower savings rates, higher bills, and concerns over Social Security all constitute a perfect recipe for lower confidence. Also on this morning's program: a preview of Tesla's quarterly earnings and a look at why home prices are falling in Texas.
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JD Vance is expected to travel to Islamabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday for potential negotiations with representatives from Iran, but peace talks are still uncertain as the end of the ceasefire approaches. Markets, though, are nearing all-time records. “Marketplace Morning Report” Host Sabri Ben-Achour spoke with Ken Wattret, vice president of global economics at S&P Global Market Intelligence, about the disconnect. Plus, we check in with two plant shop owners about how they’ve been dealing with tariffs, rent, and our broader economy in this installment of Economic Pulse.
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President Trump’s nominee to head the Federal Reserve, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, will testify on Tuesday for his nomination hearing. Warsh is expected to toe the line between maintaining Fed independence and heeding calls from elected officials. Also on the program: war in the Middle East has energy companies looking for ways to diversify their oil supply. Plus, a look into how “social capital” helped to rebuild morale, and economic growth, in Minneapolis following Operation Metro Surge.
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Markets were hopeful on Friday after Iran announced that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened to commercial vessels. Now, escalating tensions are bringing expectations back down. Marketplace’s Nova Safo spoke with Julia Coronado, founder and president of MacroPolicy Perspectives and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, about how global economists at the National Association for Business Economics International Symposium in Rome, Italy, are grappling with the back and forth. Plus, later in the program: underemployment among recent college graduates and how we measure it.
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The Strait of Hormuz has remained largely closed, with only three sanctioned tankers making it through the waterway according to Reuters. When asked about a potential timeline for lower gas prices on CNN, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said prices below $3 “might not happen until next year.” Also on the program, we discuss a New York State law limiting employers’ use of credit history and Germany’s plan to build military enlistment.
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Iran declared on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz has reopened for all commercial vessels. While the news caused stocks to rally and oil prices to drop, it’s unclear yet whether or not the market reaction is premature. Plus, we take a look into the aging demographics of first-time homebuyers and their shrinking share of the housing market.
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The head of the International Energy Agency warned on Thursday that Europe could run out of jet fuel in few as six weeks. The continent is the biggest consumer of jet fuel shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, and ongoing closures in the strait could lead to swaths of flight cancellations. Also on the program: we discuss shifting expectations for American universities, our aging first-time homebuyer population, and changes at Netflix.
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The Federal Reserve is meeting at the end of this month to figure out what to do with interest rates. They have a tough task ahead of them: weighing the job market, inflation, and a war in the Middle East that is "roiling supply chains in ways that are similar ... to what we saw emerging from the pandemic," said KPMG's Diane Swonk. Also on the show: Rising health insurance costs are dragging down wage growth.
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Power utilities plan to spend $1.4 trillion over the next five years on capital projects. A lot of that boils down to grid maintenance and projects to support additional power generation. That’s a 21% increase over what utilities were planning to spend a year ago — and it could drive up household utility bills. Then, it’s been a little over three months since the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. How has Venezuela's oil industry changed since?