This past week has been strong for the U.S. Dollar Index DXY — its best since October 2022, in fact. It’s a far cry from the first half of this year, when the index lost almost 11% — the worst first-half return on record since the index was created in the early 1970s.

Forcing already cautious consumers to deal with higher prices as the job market weakens is a dangerous economic mix.

US President Donald Trump said he would fire the head of the agency charged with publishing some of America's most closely watched economic data, after a weaker-than-expected jobs report stoked further alarm about his tariff policies.