“Do more of What Works and Less of What Doesn’t”

1. White House Says October Jobs, Inflation Reports Unlikely to Be Released — the six-week government shutdown largely halted the release of government data that Wall Street and economic policymakers rely on to measure the economy’s health. Though the shutdown is expected to end soon, the White House indicated the reports on inflation and employment for last month will be lost due to the long closure of federal agencies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics hasn’t yet said when it is likely to start catching up on the backlog of important economic reports, or which ones might be compromised by the shutdown. A BLS spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for commented.
2. Record US Government Shutdown Ends as Trump Signs Spending Bill — President Donald Trump signed legislation to end the longest government shutdown in US history, marking the official conclusion to a 43-day impasse that halted food aid to millions of households, canceled thousands of flights and forced federal workers to go unpaid for more than a month. However it could still take days, or even weeks, for the federal bureaucracy to fully restart and dig out of the backlog after being closed since Oct. 1. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters Wednesday he anticipated it could take as long as a week to start lifting flight restrictions at major airports.
3. October Jobs Report to Skip Unemployment Rate — the October jobs report, originally scheduled for publication by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Nov. 7, was one of many economic releases to not come out during the government shutdown. No data collection happened once the shutdown began as workers were furloughed. Statistical agencies, as well as other government departments, are slowly getting back up and running since Trump signed a law restoring funding. BLS, which will probably put out an updated release schedule soon, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
4. U.S. and Switzerland reach trade deal to lower tariffs to 15% — Duties will be reduced to 15%, the Swiss government said in a post on X, adding that further details will be announced. As part of the deal, Swiss companies have pledged to invest some $200 billion in the U.S. by the end of 2028, which includes funding for education and training, according to a statement by the Swiss government. The deal means the country-specific tariff imposed on Swiss goods will match the rate levied on those brought to the U.S. from the European Union.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Weekly Summary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.