The Fed cut interest rates by a widely expected quarter point today, but new projections show little appetite for the deeper rate cuts President Trump is seeking.

• ⚖️ The Fed noted that job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate remains low. Inflation, it said, has moved up and "remains somewhat elevated."

🗣️ What they're saying: "I think you can think of this as a 'risk management' rate cut," Fed chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference this afternoon.

• Dramatic revisions in job gains "suggest that the labor market is really cooling off, and it's time to take that into account in our policy," Powell said.

📉 Market impact: The stock market, which rose immediately after the decision, turned negative after Powell's gloomier tone about the economy, with the S&P 500 settling down 0.1.%

What we're watching: Powell said there wasn't much support among other Fed officials for a larger, half-point cut: "We tend to do those at a time when you feel that policy is out of place and needs to move quickly to a new place. ... That's not at all what I feel."

• Projections show Fed officials anticipate two more cuts this year, but only one additional rate cut in 2026 — not the multiple percentage points worth of rate cuts that Trump has called for.

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The ability of AI to displace humans at various tasks is accelerating quickly, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said at the Axios AI+ DC Summit today.

• ⚠️ Amodei and others have previously warned of the possibility that up to half of white-collar jobs could be wiped out by AI over the next five years, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.

🗣️ What they're saying: "As with most things, when an exponential is moving very quickly, you can't be sure," Amodei said. "I think it is likely enough to happen that we felt there was a need to warn the world about it and to speak honestly."

• Amodei said the government may need to step in and support people as AI quickly displaces human work.
• Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, who oversees the company's policy operation, added, "You need some kind of policy response at the scale of disruption we expect in the next five years."

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🚫 Nvidia shares fell on a report that China regulators had banned the country's biggest technology companies from buying Nvidia's AI chips. (Axios)

🍦 Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield is stepping down from the ice cream brand after 47 years, accusing parent company Unilever of discouraging his activism. (Axios)

🍴Cracker Barrel said it expects a sharp downturn in sales as it faces a backlash from conservatives. (Axios)

It's getting a little spicy in the airline industry, Axios' Pete Gannon writes.

Catch up quick: United CEO Scott Kirby, long skeptical of discount carriers, predicted earlier this month that Spirit Airlines — now in its second bankruptcy in a year — would soon go under. His rationale? "Because I'm good at math," he said last week.

• Spirit quickly fired back, saying United "charges the highest fares possible," and tweeted that United execs "can't stop yapping about us."

🌶️ Now, Frontier is clapping back. Kirby had earlier dismissed Frontier CEO Barry Biffle's goal of becoming the largest U.S. discount carrier by saying Biffle would be "the last man standing on a sinking ship."

• Biffle shot back today, "That's cute," per CNBC.
• Biffle then took a shot at Kirby's self-professed math skills, saying the real issue for U.S. carriers at the moment is oversupply — not a revenue model.

🥊 The bottom line: This might have to be settled behind Terminal B.