Slightly falling inflation

Several measures of US inflation moderated in March, lending weight to Wall Street hopes of an end to rate hikes and support for Fed fans who contend its soft-landing plans are bearing fruit. The core consumer price index (which excludes food and energy) rose just 0.4% from the prior month, dropping a tenth of a percent. Measures of housing costs posted their smallest monthly increases in about a year and grocery prices dropped. Traders are betting on a 25 basis-point rate hike at the Fed’s May meeting, but that may be it. “May should still tilt to a hike,” said Derek Tang, an economist at LH Meyer/Monetary Policy Analytics. “But it does take some of the wind out of whether another hike in June will be needed at all.” Here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

Now the bad news: The golden age of the I bond appears to be over. Yields on the popular debt are set to slump given softening inflation. Just a few months ago, they offered an historic 9.62% rate. Now that figure is expected to fall to 3.8%, putting the return closer to what you can get on certificates of deposit, high-yield savings and money-market funds.

Some of the world’s top private equity firms are scooping up the debt of their own portfolio companies from banks—and at steep discounts. It’s all about the hunt for juicy returns amid a lull in dealmaking.

The Biden administration proposed a landmark limit on tailpipe emissions that may compel automakers to ensure two out of every three cars and light trucks sold in 2032 are electric. The move, the latest giant climate step by the White House following passage of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, was unveiled by the Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday. If the rules withstand expected legal assaults from polluting industries, their lobbies and allies on Capitol Hill, they will be among the strongest in the world. “Today’s actions will accelerate our ongoing transition to a clean-vehicle future, tackle the climate crisis head on and improve air quality for communities all across the country,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said at a ceremony outside the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

Fury has erupted in Ukraine at videos that purport to show Russian forces beheading a Ukrainian soldier. This latest war crime allegation follows a year of allegations and investigations of Russian mass executions, rapes, torture, intentional targeting of civilians and forced deportations. Vladimir Putin has already been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court, and Kyiv authorities are now comparing his military to the Islamic State. On the ground in Ukraine, there is some indication that Kyiv forces are probing Russian weak points in preparation for Ukraine’s long-foreshadowed counteroffensive.

National Public Radio announced it was leaving Elon Musk’s Twitter after the billionaire incorrectly labeled the news organization “state-affiliated media.” Twitter later revised NPR’s label to “government-funded media,” but the public radio network—whose government funding is less than 1% of its budget—said that was inaccurate and misleading. NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence. Musk reacted this way. Separately, he also decided to take a few shots at the BBC, too.

They’re coming for your WFH. JPMorgan may be one of the first to cross the pandemic Rubicon, telling managing directors they have to be in the office every weekday. Wall Street firms, like companies throughout corporate America, are rethinking their hybrid work rules in a way that may make premature recent predictions that WFH is here to stay.

Mat Ishbia, the billionaire who bought professional basketball’s Phoenix Suns in February, runs a mortgage company where former and current employees complain of racial disparities, sexual harassment and bullying by managers. More than two dozen people who have worked at Ishbia’s United Wholesale Mortgage in recent years described a locker-room environment in which Black workers are treated differently from White employees, and where leering and sexually offensive remarks were common among sales staff.

Bloomberg continues to track the global coronavirus pandemic. Click here for daily updates.

LVMH sales soared as Chinese shoppers bounced back from the world’s strictest lockdowns and splashed out on luxury items. Organic sales at the group’s biggest unit, which sells fashion and leather goods, rose 18% in the first quarter. That’s almost twice the gain that analysts were expecting from Europe’s most valuable company.

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