. >> cnn's matt egan is here to help break this down. tt, we now have consist president indication that inflation is cooling. we are expected an interest rate hike tomorrow about 50 basis points. does the data suggest we could see a change by to 23? >> it does suggest there is a growing body of evidence that the worst may be behind us, that it's moving towards healthier levels. today the report is -- that was cooler than expected, it's the fifth straight month of cooling inflation, the lowest figure for that metric all year. core prices, month over month, were the lowest, but i do think we have to be careful we don't know for sure this trend will continue. we also don't know how long it's going to take. healthy, in some parts of the economy are still running hot. food prices have continued to rise sharply. we've seen egg prices, butter, flour, all of them up sharply. shelter is another sore spot. if you had told me two years ago that wall street and the white house would be celebrating 7% inflation, i would have said no way, but everythin

cnn's matt egan joins me now live. matt, what do these numbers show?ing new mortgage rate data. and you don't have a smile on your face. so, i'm assuming that rate -- >> well, let's start with the good news. the good news on the jobs market, even though, yes, initial unemployment claims yeah, they ticked higher. they remain low, not much above the pre-covid levels. this is a sign that a lot of bosses don't want to let go of the workers they have because there's a worker shortage, they're worried they won't be able to get new workers. claims remain well below the level that cause economists to be worried. mark moody told me today, he believes the jobless claims is the key reason why this economy could avoid a recession next year. now, you mentioned mortgage rates, they did tick higher, 6.4% is the latest average that comes after six straight weeks of falling rates. but 6.4% that is more than twice as high as they were a year ago. that is a big deal. let me show what you that works out to, in terms of your calculations if you're a home buyer. on a $500,0

matt egan is joining us now. what do the numbers tell you?e weakest part of this u.s. economy. that makes sense, because it's also part of the economy that's most sensitive to spikes in costs. so these new numbers just out show that pending home sales fell 4% month over month. this is the sixth monthly decline in a row. year over year, home sales were down by almost 38%. that is big. and as you can see, more rates have spiked, right? we saw mortgage rates go up above 7% for the first time in seven years. they still remain very high. more than twice as high as a year ago. that's a big deal, because the higher mortgage rates are the less home that people can afford, and we're seeing that play out in a big way. >> and then what about home prices? are they cooling off. >> some markets remain pretty hot. in miami, tampa, charlotte 15%, but when you zoom out and look at the national home price situation, that has cooled off. home prices in october up by a little over 9% year over year, according to s&p's case-shiller. that's a big dip from the gain

so let's discuss with cnn's matt egan. so welcome news, of course.you know, why aren't people talking about this as much last week, because clearly this was top of mind and a big concern as prices spiked over the summer. what's leading to this trend now? >> it is great news and it's pretty amazing to think that gas prices are actually down over the last year. >> yeah. >> given what has happened, but, you know, gas prices have been on a wild ride really ever since covid hit. you know, back in the spring of 2020, gas prices actually went below $2 a gallon briefly. they started climbing as the economy recovered, and then russia invaded ukraine. we saw gas prices skyrocket. you see it on that chart, topping $5 a gallon and that was just crushing, you know, consumers, and that was all driven by these concerns by russia's supply of oil getting knocked offline, and thankfully those fears haven't materialized. russian oil continues to flow. >> but the price cap now. >> exactly, and despite all these sanctions and penalties and the war continuing, russian oil

. >>> cnn's matt egan reports from new york. >> max and bianca, the federal reserve is widely expected to deliver another major rate interest rate hike today. signs could give the fed cover to slow the pace of the rate hikes. there's a growing body of evidence to suggest that the worst of this inflation crisis may be over. inflation may have finally peaked and is moving something closer to healthy levels. the latest report shows consumer prices jumped by 7.1% year over year. that is more than expected. it's the fifth straight month of cooling price gains. it's the lowest rate all year. month over month core inflation which excludes food and energy is at a 15-month low. it's too early to declare victory. we don't know how long the trend be will continue nor how long it will take to get down to 2%. inflation is still hot in some parts of the economy, especially food. we've seen rapid price gains for eggs, butter, flour among other things. rent is another sore spot. it's funny if you had told me two years ago that wall street and the white house would be celebrating 7% inflation, i wouldn

cnn's matt egan got the exclusive. t the news that we wanted but gasp buddy did offer a little bit of a silver lining for consumers next year. >> reporter: there is a silver lining and that's that gas prices are expected to be significantly cheaper next year compared to this year. gasp buddy sees pump prices coming in at $3.49 a gallon in 2023. that's down about 50 cents a gallon from this year. that is nothing to sneeze at. it translates to the average family saving almost $300 over the course of a year. unfortunately, though, gadbuddy is warning 2023 is not going to be a cakewalk. they see gas prices going back above $4 a gallon as soon as may. peaking at around $4.25 a gallon in august. that, of course, is way too high and it would come after what can only be described as an insane year for energy prices. listen to what patrick duhon told me about what we've seen this year and what's expected for next year. >> you know, curveballs coming from every direction sums up 2022. i don't think we've ever seen such amount of

let's get to cnn's matt egan. matt, what is behind this? >> it's been a bad 24 hours for the soft landing camp. markets are essentially betting against the idea that the fed can tame inflation without causing a recession. yesterday, fed officials made clear that they're not done slamming the brakes on this economy. inflation might be cool bug not enough to get them to stop raising interest rates. then today this new evidence that there are some real cracks showing in this economy. retail sales unexpectedly tumbled, the new manufacturing reports were weaken er than expected and jobless claims were strong but too strong if you ask the fed. putting it all ogt, wall street is more worried that the fed will slow this economy right into a recession. you see the dow closing down 2.3%, 764 points. the nasdaq down more than 3%. investors are clearly pricing in the growing risk, not certainty, but the growing risk that there could be a recession. jake? >> matt egan, thanks so much. the focus is also in money in an all-out scramble at capitol hill try

. >> cnn's matt egan back with us now. he market is getting hit by a double whammy here. yesterday the fed made clear it's not done slamming the brakes on this economy, inflation might be cooling but not enough for them to stop raising interest rates just met yet. and today some cracks in the economy, retail sales unexpectedly tumbled, manufacturing reports were weaker than expected. so i think if you put it all together, wall street is growing more worried that the fed is going to slow this economy right into recession, so we see the dow down almost 800 points, 2.3%. markets are up off their worst lows of the day. at one point the dow was down 950 points but still closing near session lows. tech stocks have gotten hit particularly hard -- apple, netflix, facebook owner meta, all of them down sharply. if you look at how the market has performed overall this year, the s&p 500 is down 18% so far this year. that is easily on track for the worst year since 2008. it feels like the market is in kind of a weird place right now whe

matt egan is here to break it down for us. n the right direction, but not as quickly as the fed had hoped. how will this impact their meeting, if at all next week? >> i don't think it will really impact the meeting. the fed is waging this historying war trying to cool off the economy. despite all that tough medicine from the fed, inflation remains way too high. mixed bag with this report. the good news is as you can see on that chart, inflation is cooling off. this is the fifth straight month where wholesale prices on an annual basis have cooled off. this is the lowest reading for this figure in 18 months. i think the bad news is inflation remains way too high. this is hotter than expected. as far as the fed goes, the thinking remains the same. the fed is likely to raise interest rates at next week's meeting, but they're probably going to take it a step slower. instead of 75 basis points, the thinking is they're going to go with 50 basis points. that still means higher borrowing costs for everyone. >> inflation is going down mu

matt egan is crunching the numbers, hey, matt, we only want good news not good news first.ews here. gas buddy is projecting prices at the pump will average $3.49 a gallon next year. that is down from $3.99 this year. to put this in real terps that would translate to families spending almost $300 less for the whole year on fuel than they did in 2022. now, the bad news, though, is that gas prices could back towards that dreaded $4 a gallon threshold as people start driving more in the spring and summer and as refineries switch over to more expensive summer gasoline, gasp buddy is projecting gas prices could go from $3.10 a gallon to as high as $4.05 a gallon in may and $4.25 in august, uncomfortably high. now, listen to what gadbuddy's patrick duhon told me about what people should expect next year. >> 2023 is not going to be a cakewalk for motorists, it could be expensive and made either better or worse depending on the luck of the draw that is refineries have been a tremendous story of importance this year and if anything should disrupt refineries we could again be seeing p

cnn as matt egan is here with us to break down the numbers. what's your reaction on wall street?this is a classic case of good news for main street being traded by bad news at wall street. the better the economic news, more investors fear that the fed has to keep raising interest rates and that is what investors are most concerned about right now. i think the good news, even though the dow is down almost 200 points, 1.2%. at one point, dow was down 800 points. nasdaq off by 2%. significantly more, but also well off its worst levels of the day. let me run you through some of the economic numbers because we did get good news this morning. turns out the economy grew faster than we realized this summer. q3 dpd gdp coming in at 2.3%. that's solid. and comes off the back quarter of negative gdp to start the year. let's talk about the jobs market, you and i spoke about the layoffs in tech and media. in a lot of ways that's not showing up in the government statistics. initial dollarjobless claims tha two-month low. it's a sign a lot of bosses don't want to get rid of the workers they hav

cnn's matt egan is on the case. so, matt, what have you found out about what's been going on with southwest that has gotten us to this point? >> reporter: this appears to be a case where bad luck has collided with bad planning, right, because obviously southwest cannot control the weather and this was a truly epic storm. it was a storm that also really hit chicago and denver and those are two of southwest's biggest hubs but this is not just about mother nature. i mean, one of the most stunning things we've learned this week is that southwest relies on technology and software and scheduling systems that haven't really changed since the 1990s. that's according to the head of the southwest pilots trade union. that's pretty amazing, i mean, think about how much has changed since the 1990s, think about how hold the 1990s look if you watch and early episode of "seinfeld." it's alarming a major airline hasn't upgraded its system since then. now, the fact that other airlines have bounced back pretty quickly is also another r

matt egan, thank you so much. >>> despite the mixed signals on the economy, president biden said he is optimistic, but the pressure is on the federal reserve to decide its next move, of course. >> let's bring in cnn white house reporter jasmine wright who is tracking this story for us. she's at the white house right now. what is president biden saying about these jobs numbers? >> reporter: well, president biden cheered on the jobs numbers, boris and amara, saying that the numbers are evident his economic policies are works and showing the first signs that this economy is transitioning into that more stable economy that this white house has really been fighting for, for the last the two years. he touted that the u.s. economy added 263,000 jobs. of course, the white house wanted a lower number of 200,000, so this number right now came in a little hot, touting that, of course, unemployment remains historic lows 3.7%. probably the best number for the white house right now is the gas numbers. right now averaging $3.54 per gallon. over $1 less than it was height of the summer when, really, i

cnn's matt egan has more. >> good morning, boris and amara. are back on wall street in a big way. the u.s. markets finished lower on monday ending an ugly week for stocks. this sell-off really got started almost exactly at 2:00 p.m. eastern on wednesday. that's when the federal reserve announced its interest rate decision. the fed statement and projections raise fears of more fed rate hikes ahead and remember, the more the fed does, the greater the risk they do too much and they cause a recession. jerome powell's press conference further reinforced these same concerns, but this is not just about the fed. thursday's weaker than expected reports on retail sales and manufacturing suggesting real cracks are already forming in this economy. so if you add a tough-talking fed to weakening numbers you do get recession fears. i would note this powell and the fed are just fine with the sell-off. their inflation-fighting campaign it requires tighter financial conditions. they know the more hawkish they sound, the less work they have to do. they don't wan

cnn's matt egan is here. so the tumble on wall street continues. what's it mean?ll, victor and bianna, recession fears are clearly taking back control of this market for now at least. if you look at the dow, the s&p, and the nasdaq, they're all down by more than 1% today. all on track to close at roughly one-month lows. now this selloff really got started around 2:00 p.m. eastern on wednesday. that's when the three of us were on air breaking the federal reserve news. now the fed statement made clear that there's more rate hikes to come, and that's a concern because the more the fed does risk they do too much and they cause a recession. this isn't just about the fed because yesterday we had weaker than expected reports on retail sales and manufacturing. that suggests cracks and as an economy, you put the aggressive fed together with the weak economic numbers, you get this increase of recession fears, and i would note that powell and the fed, they're probably not stressing too much about the selloff because their inflation-fighting campaign requires tighter financia

cnn's matt egan joins us now. how long could the delays last?g delayed by this crazy weather, it's caused total chaos, talking about grounded planes and shuttered package facilities and delivery trucks that can't get back on the roads. even as of today u.p.s. was warning that there will be no package pickup or delivery at almost 900 zip codes across four states, michigan, new york, indiana and ohio. fedex warns of delays through today. the u.s. postal service had to close dozens of post offices and even amazon was forced to shut down some facilities. as far as how long this lasts, it really depends on when everyone is able to dig out, when the infrastructure comes back online, the power, the highways. it's going to take some time, of course, and, you know, in the meantime this is really causing some headaches for a lot of people, especially for those of us who waited until the very last moment to do their christmas shopping and their holiday shopping because all of that stuff is delayed. pamela, in some cases this has turned those last minute ch

boris and amara. >> matt egan, thank you so much. as recession fears increase, there's actually good news at the pump. gas prices hitting another milestone with a national average sink to go a 15-month low. a gallon of regular gas is $3.16 a gallon. 14 fewer cents than a week ago. and, according to aaa, 15 cents less than a year ago. >> yeah. u.s. oil prices also dropped another 3% to $73.58 a barrel friday, a sign that gas prices could continue to go down. it's encouraging news for consumers. after a year of high rent, groceries, and of course other essentials. >>> sew a trump-era border policy is set to expire next week. and towns along the u.s./mexican border are preparing for an influx of migrants. concerns from officials across parts of texas is coming up. >>> plus, as covid cases rise, officials are urging people to protect themselves as we close in on christmas and new year's eve. the concerns amid this triple threat of respiratory viruses we're seeing across the country. . you got me a new buick?! oh! and there are more gifts

matt egan for us.nt biden leaves for the u.s. virgin islands to celebrate the new year there with his family, but as you can imagine he's not leaving his work behind. it will follow him. cnn's chief white house correspondent phil mattingly at the white house. good to see you. still has to sign that $1.7 trillion spending plan? >> reporter: right. hope he does it for both your job and mine. deadline end of the week. the expectation, it will be signed and serve as a coda for a remarkable turnaround over the course of the last 12 months. you know well, jessica, think back to january and where the president's legislative agenda stood. if you could say standing at all. then flash forward to now. end of a two-year period where the largest components of president biden's economic and domestic agenda not only have gotten through congress, many in a bipartisan manner and now implemented in a significant way. you talk to white house officials, taking stock of these first two years and look ahead what's next, the

matt egan, thank you, as well, my friends. >>> talk about a crash course.ck baker mayfield leads the l.a. rams to a dramatic win just a couple of days after he joined the team. we'll have more on that wild 48 hours, but first a reminder to tune in this sunday night to find out who will be the 2022 cnn hero of the year. >> sunday, it's the time of year to be inspired. and honor some of humanity's best. ♪ ♪ give yourself some respect because you earned it ♪ >> we have found homes for almost 3,000 dogs. >> our community is there. >> i want my grandchildren to have it better than what i have it today. >> always wanted to serve other people. ♪ >> and suffering has no borders. people are people and love is love. >> join anderson cooper and kelly ripa live as they present the 2022 hero of the year. >> honoring cnn hero of the year. >> announcer: cnn heroes, an already tribute sunday at:00. to help you achieve it. so let us focus on the how.. just tell us - what's your why? the voyager gazed in wonder. it was a time machine. (whispering) hello hello anybody there?

. >> cnn's matt egan is at the federal reserve. i think that investigators there are reacting to news that the federal reserve is not done with rate hikes, and thus, we're seeing the selloff. >> reporter: yeah. i think that's right, victor and bianna. the fed is saying that there's more work to be done here. you know, it's interesting because even though the white house and wall street have been celebrating these signs of cooling inflation, the fed chair took a bit of a different approach. he said, quote, it will take substantially more evidence to gain confidence that inflation is on a sustained, downward path. in other words, they're not declaring victory any time soon, and powell, he also stressed that the jobs market remains hot. he said that the labor market is, quote, very, very strong. he said we haven't seen much softening. wages are high, and all of that of course, supports inflation. so the fed is now pencilling in another 75 basis points of rate increases next year. that is more than the fed had previously been pencillin

cnn's matt egan is here to sort through it all. let's start with the relief at the gas pump. yay.d that should continue and what's behind it to begin with. >> well, ana, gas prices have been on a roller coaster ride this year, look at this chart. it is wild. it's hard to imagine right now, but back in 2020 gas prices got to as low as $1.85 a gallon. that was because people weren't driving due to covid. president biden took office, under $2.50 a gallon and russia invades ukraine. gas prices shot up. they peaked at a record 5.02 a gallon. the fear was russia's supply was going to get knocked offline. thankfully that has not really happened. oil continues to flow from russia. so we've seen gas prices come down, also because of recession concerns and because u.s. supply has increased in part because of record releases of emergency oil so now we have a situation where gas prices are at ten-month low, of course, very good news for consumers. the question is what happens next? and on that front oil market got a bit of a scare today. keystone pipeline got shut down due to an oil spill. no

cnn's matt egan joins us now. what else did he have to say?ld come as far as lawsuits pretty soon. >> it is. can you imagine the headaches that he's giving his lawyers who are, i'm sure, advising him not to say anything at all. in this interview, he admitted that mistakes were made here. he gflat out said, look, i screwed up and he apologized. they hurt real people. we know regulators and law enforcement around the world are looking into this bankruptcy and this collapse, but he stressed that he did not try to knowingly commit fraud on anyone. now, this whole story, i mean, it's really just been an incredible situation. i mean, a month ago, he was a 30-year-old crypto billionaire, sitting on this massive kingdom of crypto companies. his company's logo was on the home of the miami heat, their arena, on the logos of mlb umpires. endorsement deals with steph curry, tom brady and gisele, and now his company is bankrupt. everyone is wondering, how did this happen, is this enron? is heb bernie madoff. he rejected the comparisons because he said his

boris and amara. >> matt egan, thank you for that. >>> good economic news.ting you less to fill up your gas tank now. gas prices lower than they were before russia invaded ukraine. >> aaa says the price for a gallon of regular is $3.43 a gallon, down from $3.57 degrommel a week ago and $3.78 a month ago. what's behind the drop in prices and how long that relief is expected to last. >> oil producing nations are holding a key meeting sunday. the latest signs show that opec will not boost oil production which could mean that oil continues to go up and this drop in gas prices could be short lived. think to february 24th. the average price for a gallon of regular was $3.54, the day that russia invaded ukraine. prices have dropped 13 cents for an average gallon of regular in the last week. not all good news though. there are still some pretty big uncertainties like chinese covid lockdowns, fears about a recession. the thinking though right now from patrick of gas fwuddy we could see gas go down, maybe sub-3 a gallon by christmastime. that's the highest we have see

cnn's matt egan is here with more on this. expected that rate cut, but was it what the fed chairman said that's causing the sell-off? >> i think today's a bad day for the soft landing camp. maybe a bad 24 hours. the market is basically giving a big thumbs down to the idea that the fed is going to be able to tame inflation without causing a recession. and today's retail sales report really is what kicked off this sell-off in a big way. retail sales were up year over year but that's not adjusted for inflation and if you adjust for inflation it implies retail sales were actually down. month over month they were down by .6%. that was a much bigger decline than was expected. actually there was supposed to be a slight increase. so there was no decline expected. this was the worst retail sales report since the end of last year as you can see on that chart. that is raising concerns that the consumer might be tapped out here because of high inflation, they're dipping into savings, turning to credit cards, and this would be of concern b

here is matt egan with details. >> reporter: the hope was for a goldilocks jobs number, not too hot,hat would you fuel inflation, not too cold, hinting at a recession. we didn't get that. we got hot. just growth has slowed, but the slowdown recently has been glacial. you almost need a magnifying glass to see it. some sectors did lose jobs, retail, transportation, and temporary help. they were down in november. but otherwise there was a lot of demand for workers, leisure and hospitality continues to recover from covid, adding almost 90,000 jobs one month alone. health care, government and construction, all added jobs. the part of the jobs report camping the attention of economists and investors is wages. coming in the thinking was that wages would cool off, which would be encouraging because that would take some pressure off inflation. that did not happen. wages heated up. growing by 5.1% year over year. some context, roughly twice as hot as the pre-covid pace. that suggests strong demand for workers. at the same time the supply of labor is shrinking as the worker shortage continues.

joining us now cnn's matt egan. for folks who really rely on walmart and its low prices. what more can you tell us. >> it would be a big deal and startling warning coming from walmart which built its brand around everyday low prices. the ceo of walmart says that crime is a growing problem. listen to what he told cnbc. >> theft is an issue. it's higher than what it's historically been and have safety measures, security measures we put in place by store location. i think local law enforcement being staffed and being a good partner is part of that equation and that's normally how we approach it. if that's not corrected prices will be higher and/or stores will close. >> stores will close. he is saying in some markets shoplifting is so bad it would make more sense to shut the stores down altogether rather than deal with crime. of course, bad for the employees, the customers, really all consumers if they're passing the costs along to everyone and, of course, this is not just a walmart problem. right? target has said shopli

let's go to matt egan, who is tracking this for us from washington. he analysis that you're getting? >> it's a safe bet that the fed will raise rates by 50 basis points. that's what wall street is expecting. the fed does not like to surprise investors. this would be a significant shift after raising rates by 75 basis points in the prior four meetings, though it's funny, because at any other point in history, a 50 basis-point rate hike would be massive. today it indicates a kinder, gentler fed. i think it shows how aggressive the fed has been trying to get inflation under control. this is going to lift benchmark interest rates to the highest left just before the great recession. that means mortgage rates, credit cards, car loans, and more pressure on this imply. now, if the fed does indeed slow the rate hikes, that would show that officials are pleased with the recent trends for inflation. cost of living, of course, is not low. prices are still going up, but not as rapidly as they have. yesterday's inflation report showed the annual consumer prices goin

let's get over to matt egan with the latest for us. consumer confidence, matt. growing?te, we got a positive surprise and learned consumer confidence unexpectedly popped in december to an eight-month high. this news went over very well here on wall street where we saw the stock market move up sharply higher on these numbers and when you dig into the report, there's a lot to like here. consumers marked up their expectations of the current economy. they also marked down their expectations of inflation. more people are planning to book a vacation. no surprise that this rebound in consumer confidence is happening at a time when gas prices have plunged to 17-month lows. that, of course, is a huge confidence booster, one thing to watch out for, though, is that the outlook for consumers going ahead for the next now months in the economy has improved but it does remain near recession territories. now, one part of the economy that is still really hurting right now is the housing market and that, of course, is because of the spike in mortgage rates. we learned today that existing

cnn reporter matt egan is with us now. ss claims ticked up higher last week according to this new data but the dow is up. what's the deal with that? >> i think the good news here is that despite all these recession fears and despite the layoffs that we've heard about from tech companies and media companies, jobless claims do remain still pretty low. i mean initial claims did tick higher by 9,000 in the latest week to 225,000, but that is historically low. almost exactly where claims were a year ago and this is a sign that a lot of companies, they don't want to let go of the workers they have because they're worried that they won't be able to get new ones. and claims are still well below the level that would cause economists to be alarmed about a recession. in fact, mark zandi, chief economistist at moody's analytics thinks jobless claims are one reason to be optimistic this economy can skirt a recession. that's because if layoffs stay low consumers can keep spending and consumer spending is the main engine of this economy,

cnn's matt egan explains why wall street has turned sour on some good economic news. >> the hope is foroldilocks jobs number, not who hot that would fuel inflation, and not foo cold that would fuel inflation. we got hot. jobs growth has slowed. but the slowdown has been glacial. you almost need a magnifying glass to see it. now, some sectors did lose jobs of retail, transportation and health, they were all down in november but otherwise, there was a lot of demand for workers. leisure and hospitality continues to recover from covid adding almost 90,000 jobs one month alone. health care, government and construction, all of them added jobs. but part of the jobs report catching the attention of economists and investors is wages. coming in, the thinking was that waging would cool off which would be encouraging, because that would take some pressure off of inflation. that did not happen. wages heated up, growing by 5.1% year over year. from context, that is roughly twice as hot as the precovid pace. that's just a very strong demand for workers. at the same time, the supply of labor is shrinki

matt egan has a breakdown in the rise in heating costs. >> reporter: cranking up the heat is going to unfortunately be a lot more expensive this winter. even before this storm experts were warning about sticker shock when it comes to heating your home. that's in large part because natural gas prices have soared. natural gas is the most popular way to heat homes. natural gas if you run on natural gas to heat your home, the government is saying it will be 25% more expensive this winter than last winter. heating oil. the key is that is sort of the base forecast. if temperatures are colder, then you're going to see even higher costs here. 10% colder winter would mean natural gas, home heating costs 35% more expensive. heating oil 52% more expensive. >> the former ceo of the bankrupt crypto company ftx is free on a $250 million bond. sprea sam bankman-fried appeared before a judge and the terms include bond and electronic monitoring bracelet and being on house arrest at his parents' home in california. he's caccused of stealing billions of dollars. arraignment will happen at a later date.

joining us to break it all down is cnn reporter matt egan. what did we see in this report?ncouraging news. >> you're the good news guy. >> lately. these numbers show this jobs market is historically strong, up by 9,000. that's what was expected. historically low level, almost where claims were a year ago long before the recession fears popped up. it's well shy of the level that would be alarming to economists. that's despite the fact that weave heard of a wave of lay-offs in tech and media, amc, twitter, doordash, amazon, meta, all announcing big lay-offs. the fact that claims are still low, it's that a lot of other companies are reluctant to let go of the workers they have right now. if i owned a business, i wouldn't want to let go of workers because there's a worker shortage right now. >> okay. but the market, not a great end. >> no, not a great end to a really bad year. u.s. markets are on track for their worst year since 2008. the nasdaq actually just closed yesterday at its lowest level since july 2020. there's been some crazy losses of market value for some of the maj

cnn's matt egan has this exclusive. >> reporter: hey, bianca. there is definitely some good news here. gas buddy is predicting prices will average 349 a gallon this year. that is a significant decrease from $3.99 this year. if they're right, this would translate to families spending almost $300 less on fuel than they did in 2022. the bad news is gas prices could get back above the dreaded $4 level this spring and summer as people drive more and they switch over to summer fuel. summer gas is better for air quality and costs more to produce. gas buddy is predicting the national average will climb from $3.10 a gallon today to $4.05 in may and could hit $4.25 in august. listen to what gas buddy's patrick dehahn said. >> 2023 is not going to be a cake walk for motorists. it could be expensive and made better or worse depending on the luck of the draw. refineries are a tremendous story. we've seen prices that are unseasonably high. >> beyond refineries, there's a lot of swing factors we need to pay attention to. fri for example, if russia's oil flow g

here to explain cnn's matt egan and economist muhammad el aryan. president of queens college. lk us through exactly what we're learning from today's new data. >> well, inflation is still high. it is getting better. the new report with consumer prices in november jumped 7.1% year over year. that is not healthy. that is not a good number. in fact at any point in the last four years as you can see on the chart that would be a terrible number. everything is relevant. it's the fifth month in a row that annual inflation has cooled off. it's the low equivalent low for this reading all year. if you dig into the numbers there are good signs, core inflation which strips out food and energy. we saw airfare, used cars, medical care, energy prices, they cooled up that good news. and we have to be careful not to declare victory too early. there have been head fakes. % inflation is still 7% inflation. but hopefully, this trend continues becauses that would bring real relief to families. lower the risk that the fed causes recession by doing too much to put the fire out. >> the good news, core

more now on the fed decision from cnn's matt egan. >> reporter: rosemary, the fed is still pumping toughine into the economy trying to get inflation back into control. it's lowering the dosage of that medicine a bit. after four straight rate hikes of 75 basis points, the fed is now raising interest rates by 50 basis points. that is an acknowledgment that inflation is cooling off, that the fed's medicine is working. but the fed is making clear that their job is not nearly done here yet. in the fed's statement they said that inflation remains, quote, elevated. during the press conference jerome powell said it's going to take substantially more evidence to gain confidence that it is on a sustained downward trend. no evidence from the fed. 7% inflation is of course better than 9% inflation earlier this year, but it's still 7% inflation. that's still triple the fed's target. fed officials are pencilling in even more rate hikes next year. they see their fed target range going up by 75 basis points next year. that means even higher borrowing costs. mortgage rates, don't forget, recently hit 20-

matt egan with more on what's behind the market selloff. >> reporter: recession fears are back on walltreet in a big way. u.s. markets finished lower on friday, ending an ugly week for stocks. this selloff really got started almost exactly at 2:00 p.m. eastern time on wednesday. that's when the federal reserve announced its interest rate decision. the fed's statement and projections raised fears of more fed rate hikes ahead. and remember, the more the fed does, the greater they risk that they do too much and that they cause a recession. jerome powell's press conference only reinforced these concerns further. this is not just about the fed. thursday's weaker than expected reports on retail sales and manufacturing suggested that real cracks are forming in this economy. so if you add a tough-sounding fed to weakening economic numbers, you get rising recession fears. i would note, though, that powell and the fed, they're probably just fine with this selloff. their inflation-fighting campaign requires tighter financial conditions. they don't want the markets to boom. and they know the more

. >> cnn's matt egan is with us now. so the recession fears, what's fueling them?ed back to high inflation, right? the federal reserve has been trying all year to put this inflation fire out. they're lobbing these massive interest rate hikes and trying to cool this off, and not trying to cause a recession. the fear among politicians and investors and lawmakers may accidentally cause a recession. that explains this gloomy forecast from naib. three headlines, they see near zero growth of .3% next year. that is down from almost 6% last year. that's basically nothing. unemployment they see going from 3.7% today to 4.5% late next year. that translates to the loss of millions of jobs. also they say just a 1 in 4 chance of a soft landing. many expect a downturn. also out today, the ceo survey, they have a composite where they look at sale spending and expectations and it's dropped every quarter this year. not to pile on, we should expect that markets are down this afternoon. the dow was around 500 points, around 1.5%. n nasdaq is down by more than 2%. ironically though, t

cnn's matt egan has details. >> reporter: boris and amara, the hope for a goldilocks jobs number. not too hot. that would fuel inflation. and not too cold. that would hint at a recession. we did not get goldilocks. we got hot. jobs growth has slowed, but the slowdown recently has been glacial. you almost need a magnifying glass to see it. now, some sectors did lose jobs. retail, transportation and temporary help, all down in november, but otherwise, there was a lot of demand for workers. leisure and hoss ta pallet continues to recover from covid adding almost 90,000 jobs one no al alone. health care, government and construction all added jobs. part of the jobs report catching the attention of economists and investors is wages. coming in the thinking wages would cool off, which would be encouraging, because that would take pressure off inflation. that did not happen. wages heated up. growing by 5.1% year over year, and in context that's roughly twice as hot as the pre-covid pace. that suggests very strong demand for workers. at the same time, the supply of labor is shrinking, as th

matt egan is live in washington and watching all of this for us. a big question has been how does this happen? or was it -- how was it allowed to happen? what does john ray tell lawmakers about this? >> well, kate, the new ftx ceo is painting the picture of a company that is basically a dumpster fire. he said that there are no internal controls. there is no record keeping. he said no reliable fninancial statements and they used slack and used quick books to balance their books none of that is normal for a massive company like ftx. and john ray has never seen such a corporate failure of internal controls like this one and that is saying a lot because john ray is also the guy who led enron through bankruptcy. now he stopped short of outright calling ftx a fraud. but he did lay out a series of allegations that support some of these charges that cara was just talking about from federal prosecutors and john ray said that the major breakdown is that customer funds were mitched with the asset from ftx hedge fund. the s.e.c. said that is at the heart of th

let's bring in matt egan now. on friday you and i were talking about all the good news, all these good reports. but now a double whammy? >> yeah, some doom and gloom from business leaders. just last hour the business round table put out its closely watched survey of ceos and it shows that their economic outlook index dropped in the fourth quarter to a two year low. it is going down pretty sharply getting awfully close to the 50 level that divides expansion and contraction. some internals were pretty negative. ceos dimmed their views on hiring and expansion. they also cut their sales outlook. another survey out, national association for business economics is protecting near zero growth next year, big downgrade from above 2% was the forecast as of may. and they say the unemployment rate going from 3.7% today to 4.5%, that translates to millions of jobs lost. also only 23%, less than one in four expect a soft landing. two words of caution here though, one, these are forecasts, reality sometimes differs. and also timi

. >> so let's get into this with cnn's matt egan. so a big week.rrow, and a big decision coming from the fed this week already. what will you be watching? >> yeah, it is shaping up to be a huge week for the economy, and the fed's war on inflation, and treasury secretary janet yellen is striking a cautiously optimistic view. she thinks a year from now inflation will be, quote, much lower than it is now. she's saying a recession, while it's a risk, it is not required to get inflation under control. many other economists, they have been overly optimistic on the inflation front, right? it's proven to be a lot more stubborn than people anticipated. we'll get another big check on inflation tomorrow. the cpi consumer price inflation. that is not good, and as you can see on your screen though, this would be an improvement. this will be the fifth straight month of cooling inflation, and the lowest level all year. that would be a step in the right direction, and that sets the stage for the fed meeting on wednesday. that's a slam-dunk that the fed is going to

cnn's matt egan is at the federal reserve and diane swonk is joining us as well.oday is expected to be smaller. why is that? did yesterday's numbers factor into the decision? >> well, ana, if the fed does go with a smaller right hike today it will be a sign that they believe their tough medicine is starting to work. yesterday's inflation report showed that consumer prices went up in november at the smallest annual rate since late last year. inflation is still very high. it's 7%. that's more than triple the fed's target but it is starting to go in the right direction so that is why wall street is betting the fed will raise interest rates by 50 basis points today. that would be a significant shift after four straight meetings where they raised them by 75 basis points. to give you context about where we are, a 50-basis rate hike would lift them to the highest level since 2007 and means borrowing costs are still going up for everyone. mortgage rates are near 0-year high, credit card rates are at record highs and this would also mean more pressure on the economy. the f

our colleague matt egan has interesting reporting on the fact that there are going to be less beginningr, but then more? >> yes. so gas prices have been really volatile. anyone who owns a car, who has filled up their tank this year -- >> me. >> me too. you know prices have been all over the place. so gas buddy just put out its new forecast for 2023 and the forecast for the year is about $3.49 a gallon t. that doesn't mean we'll be taking at $3.49 all year. we're tracking this year to end the year at $3.99. that's still about 50 cents savings per gallon. that should mean about $270 for the average american family. that said, this sort of caveat is there is a high level of volatility and uncertainty. so, that is the hope and we should say that gas buddy was pretty much right on the dot this year round. here is hoping. the government forecast is the same, about $3.49 a gallon. heading into the summer, though, we're probably going to see that move back closer to $4, which we see every season, right, as demand starts to pick up, prices also go up. so, you know, we could be sort of still in f

let's get perspective on the numbers from matt egan who joins us live.us? >> john, inflation is starting to go in the right direction, but it still remains way too high. today's report measures wholesale inflation. this is inflation that is in the pipeline before it reaches you and i. up 7.4%. hotter than expected. good news and bad news. the good is that this 7.4% figure, this is actually an 18-month low and this is the fifth straight month of improvement so that is a good sign. the bad is that these numbers are still very high historically and we know that high inflation has really soured americans' views on this economy. now, we actually had some potentially good news on that front today, the university of michigan saying that consumer sentiment ticked higher this month. that is coming as gas prices fall sharply, but as you can see on this chart, sentiment remains very low historically and one thing to keep an eye on here, john, consumer expectations of employment fell and it actually is now at the lowest level in 11 years. john. >> a lot of mixed num

let's bring in matt egan to walk us through the latest numbers. it seems like every time we get good news we get bad news thrown right back at us. >> yeah, ana, this was an ugly retail sales report. some of the numbers here, retail sales up by 6.5% year over year. that sounds good but this is not adjusted for inflation. we know consumer prices were up by more than 7% so that's adjusted real sales were actually negative. this, though, was the number that got everyone's attention. month over month sales were down by 0.6%. that was unexpected. if you look on the chart here we are, this is the worst number since the end of last year. it was weak across the board. we saw sales declines for autos, apparel. clothing, building materials, even online shopping, all negative. some of the only positives bars and restaurants and food and beverage. these suggest consumers are starting to crack and bad news in an economy driven by consumer spending. >> we also got new unemployment numbers today. something the fed is watching closely. what do they show and what d

cnn's kara scannell and matt egan are tracking this. stay tuned. there's something that will matter to all of us. kara, first to the accusations they essentially make ftx sound lick a big shell game. can you explain the charges. >> reporter: that's right, ana. these were unsealed and eight criminal accounts including wire fraud and multiple counts of conspiracy and what prosecutors and the s.e.c. allege in their complaints and indictment is that this was a massive fraud they allege started at the very inception. there are a couple of different alleged schemes but one is that ftx is a trading platform. well, sam bankman-fried also had a hedge fund. they say that they directed customer deposits and misused them by giving them to the hedge fund to cover its own loans and its expenses and according to the s.e.c. bankman-fried had also used the money from the customer deposits to buy luxury real estate in the bahamas for him, his family and other executives and took out allegedly $1.3 billion in loans and he also donated tens of millions of dollars to p

. >> cnn's matt egan leads us off. some optimism from the president. help us better understand why it's not all good news. >> well, ana, we wanted a goldilocks number, not too hot because that fuels inflation, not too cold because that suggests a recession. we didn't get a goldilocks number. we got too hot, 263,000 jobs added last month, more than expected. there has been a bit of a slowdown but it's been pretty glacial as you can see. you almost need a magnifying glass to see it. some sectors did lose jobs, we had retail, transportation, temporary help, all of them were down, but otherwise there's a lot of demand for workers. we saw strong job gains for leisure and hospitality, health care, government, construction, all of them were up. now, the part of the jobs report that is really getting attention of investors and economists is wages. the hope coming in and the expectation was that wages would cool off. which would actually be seen as good news because that would take some pressure off of inflation. that did not happen. wages actually heated up 5.

matt egan, let's start with the gdp, what do we see. >> we know the economy has taken some serious punchesnflation and monster raised by the fed and here we are at end of the year, the economy is still standing. and the gdp report shows that the economy grew faster than we realized this summer. q3 gdp, 3.2%. that is pretty solid. that is a significant upward revision from the original estimate of 2.6%. and it shows that this economy has bounced back after back-to-back quarters of negative growth to start the year. now, let's talk about jobs. because we've spoken about layoffs, big time layoffs in tech and in media. but jobless claims are still really low. these new numbers out this morning show that initial claims, they only rose slightly last week, staying around a two-month low. they are almost exactly where they were a year ago and that shows that the businesses are reluctant to get go of the workers which makes sense because there is a shortage of workers right now. that that dips slightly but it is near a 10-month high. and that is a sign that people who are out of work to get a new j

matt egan and katherine -- i'll start with you. the president voicing hope this decline is a slide and it will keep going down. does this data back that up? >> well, it looks like inflation may have peaked and to clarify, going down doesn't mean that prices go down, it means that price growth slows. >> the rate of price increases slow. >> remember calculus from a long time ago. it's about the derivative. it means nose things are not getting cheaper. prices aren't going up as quickly as they had been and there had been signs this this or that we're not in this report but from other data that indicated that the report may even understate how much better things have gotten, for example, the report today showed that rent costs, shelter costs are going up. if you look at some private sector data that looks at new rents being offered, those rents seem to be falling, so it does seem like there is good news on the horizon. >> so let's stick there for a moment, matt, and tomorrow shelter costs up 7.1%. gas up 10%. food up 10.6%. if you're a