Fed

Howdy readers. I'm Phil Rosen, writing to you from New York City.

The Oval Office is no stranger to high drama, but Tuesday's meeting held particular gravity — President Joe Biden met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders to hash out debt-ceiling particulars.

As expected, the rendezvous produced nothing definitive as far as conclusions.

In any case, one outcome that many hold with a high degree of certainty is that financial markets are going to feel pain if the "x-date" bell tolls.

Welcome to the weekend. Phil Rosen here, writing to you from Manhattan. 

I'm somewhat of a skeptic when it comes to digital assets, but so far this year bitcoin's been the top performing asset by a landslide — it's up more than 73%.

I caught up with a blockchain executive to get the scoop on why that rally could see more upside as the economy slows down. 

All eyes are on the Fed today as officials ready their decision on what could be the final rate hike of the cycle. 

As of last night, traders assigned a 82% probability to a 25 basis-point increase, while they see an 18% chance of no change at all. 

We'll hear from central bank chief Jerome Powell today at 2 p.m. ET, shortly after the policy announcement. 

Below, we're covering everything to know for the big day.

Welcome back, readers. I'm Phil Rosen. I hope you enjoyed this weekend's NBA playoffs and new episode(!) of Succession as much as I did. 

We have a lot of ground to cover today — starting with First Republic. The FDIC announced early this morning that the firm will be taken over by JPMorgan after being seized by regulators.