After the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a point on Sept. 18, President Biden called the move a “declaration of progress.” Inflation isn’t yet whipped, but victory is coming into view.
There’s some other progress that’s important for Democrats. Voters and investors are warming to Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic plan as the Democratic presidential nominee and her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, enter the home stretch of the campaign. Even better for Harris, voters seem to blame her less than Biden for the high inflation of the last three years, which sent Biden’s approval rating into an unrecoverable nose dive.
The Financial Times has now conducted two monthly polls in a row in which voters say they trust Harris more than Trump to handle the economy. When Biden was still in the race, Trump beat him handily on the economy. But Harris inched ahead of Trump in August and expanded that lead slightly in September.
That FT poll looked like an outlier back in August, but other data now shows Harris drawing even with Trump on the economy. The latest Morning Consult poll finds 46% of voters trust both Harris and Trump on the economy. On issues such as the cost of living, housing affordability, and jobs, Harris’s approval rating exceeds Biden’s by 25 percentage points or more. That’s a startling shift, given that Harris’s policies are quite similar to Biden’s and she is, after all, the incumbent.
Read more: What the 2024 campaign means for your wallet: The Yahoo Finance guide to the presidential election
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In a recent Quinnipiac poll of swing states, voters in the crucial state of Pennsylvania rate Harris higher than Trump on the economy by two points. She’s two points behind on the economy in Michigan and four points behind in Wisconsin, yet once again, she’s closing a large gap. In University of Michigan surveys, 41% say Harris would be better for the economy, while 38% say Trump would be better, and 15% think it won’t make any difference.
Finally, in monthly surveys of business executives by Oxford Economics, a Trump presidency ranks as the top geopolitical concern during the next year. Worries about the adverse effects of a Trump presidency have climbed for three months in a row, with 43% of respondents now saying another Trump presidential term would pose a significant risk to the global economy. That’s largely because of Trump’s promise to enact sweeping tariffs and deport millions of working migrants. A Harris presidency doesn’t register as a geopolitical risk, as it would, in many ways, represent a continuation of the status quo.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris listens as she joins Oprah Winfrey at Oprah’s Unite for America Live Streaming event Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 in Farmington Hills, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
These improving views of a Harris economy and dimming views of a Trump economy aren’t happening in a vacuum. Forecasting firms such as Goldman Sachs crunched the numbers and concluded that Harris’s policies would be better for economic growth than Trump’s. Those types of analyses typically assume each candidate can get Congress to fully enact favored policies by passing legislation, which isn’t always realistic. Yet Trump’s most concerning economic policies — tariffs and deportation — are things he could do largely without congressional approval. Harris’s most disruptive policies — a higher corporate tax rate and a new wealth tax, for instance — would only be possible under a Democratic sweep of Congress and the White House, which seems unlikely.
Read more: Trump vs. Harris: 4 ways the next president could impact your bank accounts
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Harris, meanwhile, has focused heavily on pocketbook issues such as more affordable housing, healthcare, and childcare. The Morning Consult survey found such policies to be highly popular, and it also found that voters broadly associate those policies with Harris. Trump has few specific ideas for lowering everyday costs.
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None of this means Harris is cruising to victory. The race remains incredibly close, with the final electoral vote tally likely to come down to small pockets of swing voters in six or seven states. In the Michigan surveys, independent voters seem to favor Trump on the economy, which could spell trouble for Harris among the late-breaking swing voters she’ll need to win.
What Harris seems to be doing, however, is neutralizing what was once Trump’s biggest advantage. As ever, the economy is the top issue for voters, and when Biden was the Democratic candidate, Trump’s edge on the economy was beginning to look indomitable. Before Biden withdrew in July, betting markets gave Trump 66% odds of winning and Biden just 18%, with Harris and other potential Biden replacements making up most of the rest.
The same betting markets now give Harris 52% odds of winning, and Trump 47% odds. That says more about momentum than the actual likelihood of winning, but at the moment, you’d rather have Harris’s mojo than Trump’s. It’s too early for Harris to declare victory, but a declaration of progress would be fitting.
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Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @rickjnewman.
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Consumer confidence has plunged among traditionally optimistic younger adults amid fears for their personal finances and the wider economy, figures show.
GfK’s long-running Consumer Confidence Index remained unchanged at an overall score of minus 23 in June.
However, the analyst said this was was “misleading as, beneath the surface, there are new signs that confidence is weakening”.
Source: GfK
Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director at GfK, said: “The biggest fall this month is among those aged 16 to 29, traditionally one of the most optimistic groups.
“Here confidence has dropped 11 points over the past month to minus two, the lowest level seen for two years, driven by large falls in views on both their own personal finances and the wider economy.
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“More broadly, there are now no demographic groups with a positive confidence score, including higher-income households earning £50,000 or more, who have slipped back into negative territory as of June.
“Confidence remains subdued and vulnerable to further economic or political uncertainty.”
Sourve: GfK
Overall, confidence in personal finances over the coming year remained flat at minus two, four points lower than this time last year.
The measures of both personal finances and the economy over the previous 12 months were both slightly down, by two points and three points respectively, “reflecting the sense that things have been extremely tough over the last year for so many”, GfK said.
The only measure to increase was expectations for the wider economy over the next 12 months, up two points to minus 36 but still eight points below this time last year.
The major purchase index, an indicator of confidence in buying big ticket items, remained at minus 20, four points lower than June last year.
“Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” said Donald Trump on social media after he announced the signing of an interim peace deal with Iran on Sunday. Under the agreement – which Iran acknowledged included a 60-day negotiating period for a final deal – the president said that following retrieval of mines, there would be a “toll free opening” of the Strait of Hormuz.
But many of the finer details remain “unclear”, said The Guardian. There are questions over the “exact timing of the reopening of the maritime route, who will oversee safe passage and whether any conditions will be applied”.
Financial markets have welcomed the announcement, but further volatility could yet hit people’s pockets.
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Have oil prices changed?
The price of oil fell to about $83 (£62) per barrel following Sunday’s announcement, its “lowest since the early days of the war”. Then on Tuesday it dipped below $80. In February, before the first missiles struck Iran, each barrel cost around $73. The price peaked at around $120 at the height of the conflict.
Prices are expected to fall in the wake of a prolonged ceasefire, and there are “real grounds for optimism”, said Politico. Damage to oil-specific infrastructure has been “limited”, meaning it could take “as little as six weeks to resume outflows”.
“So that’s the energy crisis sorted, right?” Not so fast.” A combination of damage to wider infrastructure and the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz has meant roughly 12 million fewer barrels of oil have been produced each day. And they “won’t magically reappear on the market even if the pact holds”.
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Will this continue?
The “first big test” of the deal will be whether shipping companies will have enough “confidence” to return the use of the strait to pre-war levels, said The New York Times. If successful, this will free the 250 tankers and 330 cargo ships trapped in the Gulf, according to the BBC, and transport oil around the world. Oil and gas producers in the Gulf nations would then need to re-establish “wells, refineries and other infrastructure”.
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Even if all of that were to materialise, European and Asian countries who have historically depended on oil from the region “will face a long wait”. Processing oil takes considerable time. “It is unlikely that the prices of gasoline, diesel and other fuels will return to pre-war levels anytime soon.”
What about inflation?
Despite air fares “surging” and fuel costs “tipping higher”, UK inflation remained at 2.8% in May, said The Independent. This was a “surprise” to economists, who had widely predicted a rise to 3% and “perhaps even beyond” due in part to the war in Iran.
Remaining at this level could imply that the “cost-of-living squeeze will not play out as badly as had been anticipated” earlier this year, even if the “Iran war sent energy costs spiralling”. However, prices are set to rise again later in 2026, leaving savers to make sure their investments are earning an interest rate “well above the rate of inflation”.
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What does this mean for consumers?
Food prices in the UK look to be rising more slowly. Should the Strait of Hormuz open freely, fertiliser, which has “soared in costs” and put pressure on farmers, could fall substantially, said the BBC. Jet fuel has already seen a “small fall in price”, with Northwest Europe jet fuel trading at $1,033 (£780) per tonne, compared with $831 pre-conflict and around $1,840 at its peak.
How will businesses be affected?
Beneath the “encouraging headlines” about inflation control, there is a “hidden crisis for businesses”, said The Telegraph. The Iran war triggered one of the largest energy shocks in history, meaning businesses were “swallowing soaring costs to spare shoppers”.
“Input rises” for producers climbed by “8.7% year on year in May”, larger than the 7.9% in April and the highest in more than three years. On the bright side, this means the economy may avoid a dreaded “wage-price spiral”, but conversely lower margins could lead to increased pressure on the employment market.
Hong Kong graduates believe the city’s finance industry is its most attractive and stable sector, making them more optimistic about career opportunities than their global peers, according to a study by the CFA Institute, which trains investment managers.
The US-based institute’s “2026 Graduate Outlook Survey”, released on Wednesday, found that 71 per cent of Hong Kong graduates rated their career prospects between eight and 10 out of 10. The global average for that level of optimism was 59 per cent.
The graduates’ view of careers in finance reflected “both the sector’s resilience and Hong Kong’s continued strength as an international financial centre, which ranks third worldwide and first in Asia-Pacific”, the institute said in a statement.
The findings also indicated that young people were confident about Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre, resilient amid global uncertainties, and strategically focused on improving skills, it said.
That confidence was “deeply grounded”, it said, with nearly 90 per cent believing they had the skills to succeed and clearly understood what employers were looking for, notwithstanding the wider adoption of artificial intelligence in the city.
“Rather than viewing AI as a threat, 38 per cent of Hong Kong graduates believe it has no negative impact on their job hunting, and 37 per cent believe it makes securing a job easier,” the institute said. “Three quarters are already actively using AI tools in their job applications, demonstrating a proactive, tool-first mindset.”
