inflation eases in the us but not enough for the federal reserve to cut record—high interest rates. a higher cost of living not deterring australians from investing in their furry friends. we will have the details ahead. hello and welcome to business today. we start with good news on the economy from the us. consumer price rises eased slightly last month, rising just 3.3%, but that wasn't enough to persuade the federal reserve to cut interest rates. the central bank held the cost of borrowing steady at the highest rate in years. erin delmore has the details from new york. economic datasets can feel abundant, these are two big deal events. we've only seen them happen

on the same day seven times in the last decade. to start, the consumer price index. that's the key inflation gauge that held good news wednesday morning for american consumers and the fed. it showed inflation cooling slightly in may after a few particularly hot read—outs in the first few months of the year. at 3.3% the yearly price increase was lower than expected and slower than the increase we saw in april. the data actually showed no change month to month between april and may. and the core inflation rate which excludes volatile food and energy prices cooled as well. that's the kind of news federal reserve officials are looking for. but it was not enough to warrant an interest rate cut. here is federal reserve chairjerome powell. we see today's report as progress and is building confidence, but we don't see ourselves as having the confidence that would warrant beginning to loosen policy at this time.

the fed held steady, making no change to the current benchmark interest rate. that stands at 5.25% to 5.5%, more than two decad high. officials consistently said they want inflation sustainably toward the 2% target. this marks a seven straight meeting without cutting interest rates. the summary of economic projections, known colloquially as the dot plot, showed that members of the fed are on average projecting one interest rate cut before the end of the year. there are only four meetings left this year which leaves questions about whether the fed will lower interest rates in september, the last chance before the us election, or it could cut in november or december at the tail end of the year. i have been speaking to hamish preston, head of us equities at index provider s&p dowjones indices, and he told me how the data is affecting the markets.

if we look today, us equities gained and the s&p 500 gained and closed at an all—time high, the 28th all—time high closing level for the index so far this year. if we look at today's market movements, contributing to that was the lower—than—expected cpi data. in the afternoon we actually saw muted reaction to the us federal reserve�*s policy announcement largely because the market had expected ahead of meeting for rates to remain unchanged. you said that investors had focused more on the guidance from the fed and the dot plot to glean insights and form expectations around the future path of interest rates. and actually i think this has been a broader trend of the past couple of years where investors have looked at data points from the macroeconomic to remarks

from the fed to help them glean insights on the future path of interest rates. whether the expectations come to fruition, we'll have to wait and see, but muted reaction to the fed announcement. fair enough. give us a sense of where the us equity market stands now compared to the pandemic period. what's interesting, if we look at the past four years or so, at various points in time the largest companies in the market have led the way, most recently that's been driven by the artificial intelligence trend with investors anticipating maybe the application of ai stands to benefit certain companies compared to others. of course four or five years around the pandemic the largest companies or some of them benefited from that work from home, communicate online, shop online environment we found ourselves in, so in some respects that is similar but obviously

different narratives driving. elon musk staying in the headlines. his former employees of rocket company spacex are suing the billionaire and the firm. the engineers say they were illegally fired for raising concerns about gender discrimination and sexual harassment. the lawsuit was filed in los angeles. spacex has denied any wrongdoing. global economic challenges are on the agenda at the g7 meeting which is set to start in the coming hours. us presidentjoe biden arrived for the meeting of heads of the world's most developed democracies. he is expected to speak out against russia over its war in ukraine and he will be increasing pressure on china for its support of moscow as well as its excess industrial capacity. speaking of cheap chinese goods flooding foreign markets, the european commission says it will impose duties of up to 38% on electric cars imported from china. it's less than a month after the us announced plans to quadruple

duties for chinese evs to 100%. ray wang, the leader of constellation research, told me what impact these tariffs are likely to have. the biggest impact is really thinking about what's going to happen to european jobs as well as what's happening to the market for european evs. what china is doing with these tariffs is dumping on the europeans and the americans in terms of car manufacturing, heavily subsidised batteries and plants, and that's what the europeans are worried about. but the challenge for european manufacturers is they have a lot of capacity in china and so we have a situation where it will be an interesting balance of trade. over 20% of ev sales in europe were chinese origin and europe is in this market of trying to protect their auto exports but also

manufacturing and exporting in china with manufacturing in china operations so it will be an interesting balance of trade argument. is it going to be what we call or protecting european jobs versus potential china retaliation? beijing said it would take measures to save those interests. what retaliation can be expected? the challenge here is what china is going to do with european production in china. will they put tariffs there, make it harderfor them to do business in china, actually make it more expensive for them to acquire any of the ev technologies they need or battery technologies or even rare earth materials? those are in the air, but china is in a situation where it is trying to export its way out of a recession and world leaders all have caught on to the fact that they are dumping into markets and that's what the challenge is. there should be a world trade organisation filing or complaint out there but that has not been effective in the past decade. the uk economy recorded no growth in april after wet weather dampened consumer spending. it's after the fastest

growth in two years from january to march, ending the recession from the final half of last year. despite cost of living pressures, it's estimated that australians are spending billions of dollars each year on their pets. the bbc�*s phil mercer went to meet some furry friends in sydney. come through! many businesses know a trick or two about making money from dogs. from daycare to vets and grooming, australia's pet industry that grew rapidly during the covid pandemic is worth billions of dollars. across australia there are more pets than people, and dogs are the nation's favourite. there is an appetite in the australian market to have a dog in the house and it's one of the things that make the house a home, it's a family member, some people's only child or extra child, particularly with dogs, the love and fun they give you and the the joy

is unmatched. the bond australians have with their pets is strong, despite economic uncertainty. but many animals are abandoned or taken to shelters. thejiji rescue cat cafe in sydney offers the unwanted a second chance. i don't think it is cheap and easy to have cats or dogs. first of all, it's a 20—year commitment, notjust a pretty present. the cost of pets is not cheap. if they got sick, even consultations cost a lot. there are physical and psychological benefits of having a furry friend. it is sociable and you get plenty of exercise. there is a significant economic dividend — its estimated that each year australians spend about $22 billion on their pets which include fish, birds and snakes. but cost of living pressures have left their mark. many pet owners are cutting back where they can. what i've noticed since the third or fourth

increase in interest rates, people are taking a lot longer to come to the grooming table. whereas before they might�*ve come every six weeks, they're probably coming every eight or ten. there is definitely a pinch. despite the challenges, working with dogs has its rewards. you get to hang around with people who like dogs like bonnie, which gives you a challenge, but it's a great lifestyle. and it is a lifestyle that one airline wants to get on board with. virgin australia has plans to become the country's first airline to let small cats and dogs fly in the cabin on some domestic flights. australia's love of pets is to hit new heights. phil mercer, bbc news, sydney. for more tell stories, log onto the bbc news website. that it on this addition from business

today. thank you for watching. stay with bbc news.

hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm marc edwards. less than 48 hours before euro 2024 kicks off in germany, we catch up with the scotland team tasked with spoiling the hosts�* opening night party. india qualify for the t20 world cup super 8 but are made to work by the usa. the gold standard for keely hodgkinson. she tops the european championship 800m podium with the olympics just around the corner. hello and thanks for

joining us on sportsday. we start with football.