With fear of a self-induced US recession gripping Wall Street, any news is good news these days. So it can’t be too surprising that stocks spiked in frenzied trading Thursday after a few Federal Reserve officials publicly mused about possibly cutting interest rates in the near future.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack told CNBC the central bank could move as early as June if it has clear evidence of the economy’s direction. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller similarly said he’d support rate cuts if President Donald Trump’s tariffs start pushing Americans out of work. 

Fed officials have signaled they intend to keep interest rates steady until they can fully assess the consequences flowing from Trump’s radical immigration, trade and deregulation plans. The next few months may add some clarity. —Jordan Parker Erb

What You Need to Know Today

But maybe Waller is on to something when it comes to the labor market. Applications for US unemployment benefits rose slightly. Initial claims increased by 6,000 to 222,000 in the week ended April 19, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. That was in line with the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists and close to the 12-month average.

Britain’s wealthy are heading for the exit after a flurry of recent tax hikes. Ian and Richard Livingstone, two of the UK’s richest real estate investors, now list Monaco as their place of usual residency after previously citing their home country, according to registry filings. And Richard Gnodde, a Goldman Sachs vice chairman who ran its international business for years, is relocating to Milan from London. The Livingstones’ departure shows how unease at tax changes is now impacting home-grown talent after changes to taxation ranging from private equity investments to inheritances and capital gains.

A group of Celsius investors are urging a federal judge to impose the highest possible punishment on founder Alex Mashinsky, who admitted to fraud in connection with the crypto startup’s 2022 collapse. Prosecutors on Wednesday submitted more than 200 statements from people who put their money into the failed company. While a few urged US District Judge John Koeltl to go easy on Mashinsky at his May 8 sentencing, the majority asked him to impose the highest possible punishment allowed by law—with some suggesting he spend the rest of his life in prison.

Celsius’s collapse was one of the earliest events in the so-called “crypto winter” of late 2022, a series of events that wiped billions of dollars of value from the digital-asset market, and was followed about four months later by the implosion of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, whose founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.

Carlyle is reviving its DC brand. The investment firm got its start in the US capital and rose to prominence after hiring former cabinet officials who parlayed their Washington ties into profits. But its proximity to power, once a selling point, became a flashpoint for accusations of crony capitalism. In turn, New York—the home of its C-suite—became its power center. Now, Chief Executive Officer Harvey Schwartz is trying to revive Carlyle’s brand around its Washington roots.

Harvard University’s endowment is in advanced talks to sell roughly $1 billion of private equity fund stakes, at a time when the school faces financial uncertainty and pressure from Trump’s threats and a sluggish market for returns on illiquid assets. The news comes just days after Yale’s endowment announced it would consider selling private equity fund stakes. It’s said that Harvard Management, which runs the largest endowment in US higher education, is working with Jefferies to offload the portfolio to Lexington Partners in a so-called secondaries transaction, though terms of the deal aren’t finalized and could still change.

What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow

For Your Commute