christine romans is here, and christine, this is a long time coming. >> ier.prices fell a tenth of a percent. we haven't seen lower prices since the start of the pandemic. the annual inflation rate now 3%. remarkable improvement there from the peak of 9.1% two years ago. prices fell this month for gas, used cars and trucks, airfares, other transportation services. and that decline in gasoline more than offset rising housing costs. grocery store prices up slightly. but for 2024 so far, average grocery inflation is essentially flat. and because wages have been rising faster than inflation for a year now, people may finally start feeling a difference. itbe a turning point in the federal reserve's inflation fight, coupled with still strong but cooling jobs growth, it signals the fed may be able to cut interest rates sooner rather than later. mortgage rates are already retreating. the 30-year fixed rate mortgage falling to 6.8% today. lester? >> christine romans, thank you. >>> coming up, she became a star in "the shining" and had so many other memorable roles. our

christine romans, nbc news. >>> up next, an nbc news exclusive. crackdown on might grants with criminal records, and why communities are rethinking sanctuary city policies. growing old is part of the journey, even when you have heart failure. but when he had shortness of breath, carpal tunnel syndrome, and lower back pain, we wondered, could these be warning signs of something bigger? thank goodness we called his cardiologist because these were signs of attr-cm, a rare and serious disease... ...that gets worse over time. if you see any of the warning signs, don't wait, ask your cardiologist about attr-cm today. known as a loving parent. known for lessons that matter. known for being a free spirit. no one wants to be known for cancer, but a treatment can be. keytruda is known to treat cancer, fda-approved for 17 types of cancer. one of those cancers is advanced nonsquamous, non-small cell lung cancer, where keytruda is approved to be used with certain chemotherapies as your first treatment if you do not have an abnormal “egfr” or “alk” gene. keytru

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but lying about money destroys it. >> christine romans, cloud cameras.en drops out. the president making the stunning decision to end his bid for reelection, putting his support behind the vice president to lead the nation now and take on donald trump in november. we have team coverage of this historic announcement. the former president already reacting t

joining me now is christine romans. great news, obviously.ter: they are already starting to feel it. you can see that 3% rate is the lowest in about three years. when you look month on month, this is really important, prices fell 0.1% for gasoline. that is a really big heart of the equation. energy prices just one of her -- 1%. appliance prices fell, you saw prices for airlines fall, you saw a bunch of different categories that had actual declines in the sticker price. over the past couple of months there has been some relief for people, quite frankly, on certain items. not for shelter though. those prices remain pretty high overall. the overall inflation story is not vanquished. 3% is still higher than the federal reserve would like to see, of course. it is the coolest in years. 3% is the coolest in three years. remember the 9% inflation rate that was so terrible in 2021. this is a dramatic improvement. this feeds into the idea that the fed is starting to see a shift in the economy and might be able to start easing interest rates as soon as

christine romans covering the trend for us. i don't do this all the time. have i?ething that's on the rise according to the wall street journal. >> shopping sprees have long been an american pastime. >> get in, loser, we're going shopping! >> reporter: but as the prices of pretty much everything are on the rise, some shoppers are hiding their retail therapy from their significant others. >> my husband found my secret stash in the linen closet. >> reporter: a new article in "the wall street journal" calls it stealth shopping and says it's on the rise, with more americans hiding big purchases from their partners. >> hiding purchases means that something has gone very wrong, before you ever swipe the credit card. it means you're not communicating effectively as a couple, it means you haven't created a vision of how you both want to spend your money. >> reporter: one survey found on average, secret spenders shell out nearly $475 behind their partner's backs. another found nearly half of partnered americans have hidden or lied about financial information to their signif

christine romans joins us now. walk us through the numbers here, this sounds like a good thing. >> certainly very encouraging when you're talking about inflation that's 3%. it was 3.3% in may, you look at the chart, when you look at these economics number, the trend has bedeclining. this is important information overall for american consumers. frankly, you're already starting to see some relief on some of the things you're buying, airfare fell. gas prices down 3%. when you flash back a year, used car prices are down about 10%. you're starting to see relief if some budgets. i'll zoom out, though, and say overall consumer prices since february 2020 are still up about 20%, that's why people still feel a little uneasy about this strong economy. >> so, does this report make it more likely you'd think that the federal reserve might cut interest rates soon? >> and that's the going thought on wall street right now, that this is another piece of the puzzle that shows an economy that's still sturdy but not overheating, that

joining us now, guad venegas, and senior business correspondent, christine romans.'s that look like? >> reporter: well, jose, things are much better now than they were this morning. it was chaotic here. you had people arriving trying to check into their flights, weren't able to check in because the app they normally used to check into flights wasn't working. neither were the web sites. people were lining up here at the counters behind me. i spoke to some individuals that lined up for four hours, jose, to be able to get to this area, to eventually check into the flights. the issue affected airlines in different ways. what we know here is the airport was not affected. the systems that the airport used were not affected. the planes were able to take off and landed. the airlines themselves in many cases here appear to have been unable to check in a lot of the passengers and they had a lot of issues. the last time we checked, there had been 600 delays that is, and about 400 cancellations at this airport. let's hear from one of the travelers we spoke to earlier today. >>

joining us now is christine romans, what are these restaurants doing to be more and appetizing to customersyou, america, because you've been voting with your feet. cheaper value across the street. they're coming out with all kinds of ways to woo you back to spend money at their place. meal deal wars. have been waging a battle for your bite all summer long. >> can we talk about how ridiculous fast food prices are anymore? >> reporter: a new round is heating up. mcdonald's is now extending its popular $5 meal. >> this is actually the best mcdonald's meal right now. >> what started as a temporary promotion will be served up all the way through august, "today" has learned. the meal which could include a cheeseburger plus fries with mcnuggets and a drink. mcdonald's president speaking to consumers last month. >> did consumers force your hand by being fed up? >> customers are telling us they're really stretched. this is a great opportunity for mcdonald's to bring them value. >> reporter: fast foodies revolting after it began to overwhelm their wallets. >> fast food is overpriced that it is often

let's dig into this with nbc news senior business correspondent christine romans. so christine, help make this make sense. we got higher than expected jobs numbers. and yet this unemployment rate let me be a bill karins meteorologist and tell you it used to be the job market looked like that weather map. hot hot hot hot. this report was a little bit cooler, a little bit more comfortable for the fed at least. and so you had a lot of hiring, but not as much hiring as last month. and you can see that very hot pace. the 300 plus seems to be cooling here. so i think that's the overall takeaway here, that what had been an unsustainably very strong job market is cooling off a little bit. and when you look at these numbers, the 4.1% unemployment rate, the highest since november, i think 2021, but still 4.1% is still historically quite low. and you just mentioned the fed makes my ears go, wait, the fed, they're the ones that manage the interest rate, right? right. so could this mean that maybe they're going to lower interest rates essentially this particular jobs report fits

i want to turn back to christine romans and the theme of the economy at the republican national conventionnd in terms of what we have now as opposed to then? >> it a strong economy and record high stock market and record high prices for homes which is difficult for first-time home buyers and people who are trying to get into that housing market, but when you are looking back four years ago, where were you four years ago, much of the country was in lockdown four years ago, and so that kind of the framing is a little bit more difficult this time having lived through a once-in-a-generation pandemic, and skewing all of the metrics, but the stock market is not a measure of how americans are feeling of course. but buy and hold, regular buy and hold investors the stocks are up 75% in the past five year, and the big stock rally expansion that began in the trump administration has largely continued over the past four year, but what this administration wants to do is to really focus in on the pain points, savannah, of the families who are feeling that car insurance is up 40%, and homeowners insuranc

about all of this minute, every handshake with olympic athletes or russia, just incredible stuff christine romans are crushed. christine brennan, i should say. thank you so much reporting live from paris. always great to see you have fun in paris. i know it's going to be a great it's time for you over there. really appreciate it and thank you very much for joining me here on the cnn newsroom. i'm jim acosta, stay with cnn inside politics with dana bash starts right now. have a great day today on inside politics. >> donald trump goes from zero to garbage in warp speed. re

joining me now for a look at the data is christine romans. what's the bigger meaning here? >> i think you can boil it down like this, the job market is hot. it's strong. it's not red hot anymore. that's really important here. the job market had been so strong and so above anybody's expectations for a couple of years, that there were concerns it would feed into inflation and the fed's rate hike campaign wasn't working to slow down the job market. you are starting to see signs this is a more normal job market. 206,000 new jobs, it's a little less than the month before. that shows a cooling. that unemployment rate ticking up, that's the highest in three years. that shows a cooling. look at wages, 3.9% annual wage growth, that's great for typical workers. your paycheck is rising faster than your bills mostly. it's not so red hot that it's a concern overall about inflation. this is the kind of number that folks at the fed and economists wanted to see. >> that's the next question. what does the fed think? especially when they consider a rate cut later this year. >> it means that

. >>> first, christine romans is here with a closer look at a trend that can take a toll on your budgetod morning. >> good morning. are you keeping packages in the trunk of your car, wearing a new pair of shoes home from the mall and ditching the box, hiding the evidence? it's all called stealth shopping. hiding your purchases from your significant other and it's on the rise. we'll tell you why people are keeping their spending a secret, right after this. wow, this is fascinating: did you know whales and barnacles have a parasitic relationship? oh, i know about parasitic relationships— let's go barnacle. off you go. unlimited 2% cash back, the wells fargo active cash credit card. (school bus stops) (silence) pop-tarts. crazy good. skin craving next level hydration? neutrogena hydro boost water cream. a vital boost of 9x more hydration that's clinically proven to boost your skin's barrier for quenched, dewy skin that's full of life. neutrogena hydro boost. they say we should stop eating so much meat. for quenched, dewy skin that's full of life. so we made meat out of plants. because we a

joining me now is christine romans. what are we learning from this report? >> it is a situation that is improving. 3% is the inflation rate. what is really important is that month over month from may to june prices fell 0.1%. that is the first meaningful decline since may 2020. that was the height of the pandemic. what you are seeing is a cooling in the inflation story overall. this was the terrible peak of 9%. this is what so many remember so vividly. this is one of the reasons people feel so terrible about the economy. you can see two thirds have been improved right now. there are some areas where people are seeing lower prices. airfare fell 5%. gas prices are 3.8% just from may to june. used car prices down slightly as well. we know that over all there are pain points in the economy. homeowners insurance is up, shelter prices are high, all of these reports really show you that since 2020, overall prices are up even with the overall inflation rate cooling. still some pain points for the american family but you are seeing some relief. it might allow the fed

joining us now is senior business correspondent christine romans. >> it's a milestone report. what has been this big inflation fight that we have all lived through. every time you go to the grocery store, 3.3% was the annual inflation rate in may. it's 3% in june. that's the slowest inflation we have seen in a few years now. you can see i always say when we look the at these economic numbers, the trend is your friend. look at this trend. s this is a real reversal from the bad old days of 9.1 inflation. there's relief right now. this suspect like people isn't like down the road. air fare is down 5% from may to june. gas is down 3.8%. in fact, over the past year, used car prices are down about 10%. so that's real progress right now. the white house today pointing out if you look at grocery prices for the first half of this year, they are essentially unchanged on average when you look at those. that's something that had really been a problem for families. you saw prices rise so much. i will say consumer prices overall are up 20% since the beginning of

nbc's christine romans is here to break things down, and the numbers are better than were projected,nkly, the lowest in three years. in may the inflation rate was 3.3%, and in june it was 3% and when you look at the trend which is always so important, with all of these economic reports you can see this is the peak inflation about 9% and this is pretty steady progress here. 3% of the inflation rate and inside these numbers i see that you're paying less for today than you were in may. airfare down 5% in the month and gas prices, down 1% and a host of other different categories and you are paying less for today than you were at the beginning of the summer and that's real progress, right? because for so long inflation has been piling up every single month and adding to the overall cost of american families and this has been issue number one for families. i would say overall consumer prices are still 20 higher today than they were in february. so that's why you still see people say they feel lousy about the economy and in terms of the pain points, they are improving and the white house ch

about all of this minute, every handshake with olympic athletes or russia, just incredible stuff christine romans are crushed. christine brennan, i should say. thank you so much reporting live from paris. always great to see you have fun in paris. i know it's going to be a great it's time for you over there. really appreciate it and thank you very much for joining me here on the cnn newsroom. i'm jim acosta, stay with cnn inside politics with dana bash starts right now. have a great day today on inside politics. >> donald trump goes from zero to garbage in warp speed. remember that flash of a moment, what trump said he was going to be nice while he unsurprisingly and explicitly ditch that and moments ago, the vice president made clear she's not pulling her own punches plus the push for peace. joe biden says that ending the war in gaza and security bring the release of hostages held by hamas will be a major focus of his final months in office. it begins today with a crucial face-to-face meeting with benjamin netanyahu, we have new reporting on what may happen behind closed doors. and jennifer anis

our christine romans will be here to break down the numbers. ♪ ♪ c'mon, bear. ♪ ♪ ♪ you don't...you don't... ♪ ♪ be by your side... i'll be there... ♪ ♪ with my arms wrapped around... ♪ ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. dangerous ladders. gutter muck. yuck. no wonder you hate cleaning your gutters. good thing there's leaffilter. our patented filter technology keeps leaves and debris out of your gutters forever. guaranteed. call 833- leaffilter to get started. and get the permanent gutter solution that ends clogs for good. they took the time to answer all of our questions. they really put us at ease. end clogged gutters for good. call 833.leaf.filter, or visit leaffilter.com today. >>> you're looking at live pictures from wisconsin. a

draw contrasts obviously with president biden's agenda, nbc news senior business correspondent christine romanseard some basics. >> here are the basics of the trump record, we have someone running for president who's already been president, lot of deregulation when he was president of the united states, lot of tariffs and individual and corporate tax cuts that will expire, big tax issues on the agenda and covid was a big hit on jobs and on economic growth, he's the president who presided over the biggest loss of jobs because of covid. what is he promising in the second term, talked about mass deportations, a lot more tariffs, more tax cuts and he would cut so much the inflation reduction act and he would focus more on fossil fuel. >> the former president will win, trump has touted his strength in business and zblashgts conditions are very, very good in the stock market and that's why stocks have been rising. here's what it looked like under donald trump, record highs along the way. if joe biden was elected the economy would crash so would the stock market, that didn't happen, the stock market c

in fact, i read christine romans book on my flight, come to boston and then on the shuttle to new hampshire and a bunch of the undergrads came up to me and i like, why are they so interested in this? they knew me from my podcast, right? they knew me from matter of opinion. this weekly opinion podcast, i have within you, which is great and people should listen to me. yes, it's not just carlos, although that would be enough me. but he does it with three other ross douthat, lydia polgreen and michelle cottle. the four of us sort of discussed the news of the day. and so that was to me, i'd never you know, i they were here for my book and for my great column. right. and they were there because they listened my podcast. right. and so i realized a different audience, right? and that's a way to reach a different kind of audience. chris mentioned that i wrote about the project 20 to 25 plans for the heritage foundation for second trump term, and i wrote a column about it we did a podcast discussion about it. i went on morning joe about i did an audio essay about it and a new york tech talk about it,

this morning on today, senior business correspondent christine romans breaks down how other fast food and casual dining restaurants are cutting prices and offering deals to try to get consumers back. it's all coming up this morning at 7 a.m. on today. it's 517 in the morning right now, and this week thousands of fans will be descending on san diego for this year's comic con. and among them, we can expect to see some playing their favorite hero. and of course, they're going to honor them by, you know, dressing up. so in honor of that, we're going to break down the top ten action heroes. so who's the best of the best? well, according to usa today, coming in at number one, indiana jones, played by harrison ford. also on that list, captain america by chris evans keanu reeves as john wick and some ladies in this mix as well. uma thurman as beatrix the bride kiddo. her fight scenes were amazing, and then rounding out the top ten, that spot's going to go to christopher reeves as my favorite superman, yeah, a classic there. yeah, his son is going to make an appearance in the upcoming superman

let's bring in christine romans, brian cheung.bera good morning, guys. >> good morning. >> we should out this was >> what not a cyberattack, brian. what are they saying about it?g it? >> actually a lot are going, crowdstrike, what is that? >> it is a cybersecu actually, a lot of people are going, crowdstrike, what is rity basically companies contract them t that?o essentially foolproof their computers an so who is this group? >> crowdstrike is a d make sure they're not hackable. for that reason this isn't cybersecurity company contracted to foolproof their computers and make sure they're not hackable. this is not something that will likely affect personal computers.pact personal compute likely going to impact the it will affect basically the computers that you have at work that your company has trie computers you have at work that hire crowdstrike to make your company tried to hire sur it's not crowdstrike to make sure it's not hacked so for that reason, sad face on the blue scr lot of people will be waking up death so thi this morning and trying to log make these in to that sad face

let's bring in christine romans. reverend al sharpton also with us as well. his is economists and i would guess fed members, they like a sort of steady as it goes approach. this is a pretty steady number, just right along expectations, right? >> it's cooling. that is something that economists and fed folks want to see, because the job market for the past few years has been simply roaring and has been so strong that it's been part of the inflation story. you're seeing cooling inside these numbers. you've got 206,000 jobs added in june. that's down from 218 in may. you look inside these numbers, and you see things that tell you maybe some of the froth is coming off a very, very strong job market. and the unemployment rate, 1.4%, that's the highest we've seen since way back in november 2021. this shows a labor market that is robust, that is strong. you still have way more open jobs than people looking for jobs in america, but at least it's not quite so tight that it's feeding into that inflation story. >> that's, of course, a big story surrounding the economy. it

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joining us now christine romans. so this is good economic data.n the american economy. it started a week ago today when you had a job report that was still sturdy but showing some signs of cooling. then you had cooling inflation. you have the stock market with 35 record highs for the s&p 500. any individual investor who's a buy and hold investor like we all should be has done very, very well over the past four or five years. and you have an economy at a turning point where you see the fed talk about cutting interest rates for american families. i was talking to a senior administration official yesterday who was saying inflation has been rising faster than wages for a year now. maybe consumers will start to feel a little bit better about things. by and large, a great week for the economy for our pocketbooks after suffering inflation over the past years. >> if americans start feeling better, that's a formula for presidents running for reelection. they tend to win. this is what the biden team has wanted all along. how can they get that to break throu