Table of Contents

• Fed Decision

• Microsoft Outage

Top Stories Today

Economy & Finance

Fed Decision

The Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates unchanged in the 5.25%-5.50% range during its recent meeting but indicated a potential rate cut in September, as inflation nears the central bank's 2% target. The Fed's statement noted that inflation is now "somewhat elevated," signaling a softening stance compared to previous assessments. The decision aligns with market expectations and suggests that the Fed may consider reducing rates soon, depending on economic data. The market responded positively, with stocks showing modest gains and bond yields fluctuating slightly. Analysts believe that the Fed's acknowledgment of balanced risks hints at a possible rate cut in the near future, especially if upcoming economic reports show favorable inflation trends.

Technology

Microsoft Outage

A global outage affected several Microsoft products, including Outlook and Minecraft, for nearly 10 hours. Microsoft attributed the disruption to a cyber-attack, specifically a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, compounded by an error in their defense implementation. The outage also impacted services reliant on Microsoft platforms, such as Cambridge Water and NatWest. Microsoft implemented a fix and has apologized for the inconvenience. The incident follows another major outage two weeks prior due to a flawed software update by CrowdStrike. The timing coincided with Microsoft's financial report, which showed a slowdown in Azure demand, causing a 2.7% drop in after-hours trading.

Thanks for reading, subscribe to The Standard Lens for more.