Inflation — still hot — finally shows signs of cooling. Plus: banker bonuses in the crosshairs, a buyout baron's shock exit, and more

Welcome to?This Week in Finance , your weekly roundup of the top news, conversations, and voices trending among financial professionals on LinkedIn. Click 'Subscribe' to be notified of each edition. This week:

Inflation shows signs of slowing

U.S. consumer prices slowed their advance for the first time in four months as energy prices cooled — and as the Federal Reserve continued to raise interest rates to counter the quickest inflation in more than 40 years. The overall consumer price index climbed 8.5% annually, compared with 9.1% in June, as core prices maintained growth of 5.9%, the Labor Department reported. Gasoline prices dropped 7.7% in July, the most since April 2020, but food prices jumped 10.9% from a year earlier — the most since 1979.

• The central bank, which hiked borrowing costs by three-quarters of a percentage point in July, next meets to decide on rates in September.
• In "another sign that price increases are slowing," says CNBC , wholesale inflation fell 0.5% in July, according to the BLS.
• Here's what people are saying.
• Wage hikes concern economists : Wages across the country continue to rise, growing 5.2% in July, as companies attempt to retain staff in a tight labor market. The rapid increase in pay is concerning some economists.
• U.S. jobs unexpectedly soar in July : Confounding economists’ expectations of a slowdown, the U.S. economy added 528,000 jobs in July — more than double the amount forecast by Wall Street. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.5%, matching a 50-year low set just before the pandemic.
• Economy sending 'strange signals' : There's been a lot of hand-wringing over whether the U.S. is in a recession, despite meeting a key benchmark — two consecutive quarters of negative growth. The New York Times' Ben Casselman maintains that if the U.S. is in a recession, it's "unlike any previous one."

Banker bonuses on chopping block

Bonuses on Wall Street hit an all-time high in 2021 — but this year is set to be very different . Some financial firms may slash bonuses by up to 45%, according to a report from consultancy Johnson Associates, which anticipates belt-tightening amid growing recession fears and economic uncertainty. While these firms remain profitable, many have seen revenue slide — JPMorgan Chase saw investment banking revenue fall 61% last quarter, while Morgan Stanley saw it drop 55% — and potential bonus cuts and layoff fears are dogging the sector. ?? Here's what people are saying.

Ex-JPM traders guilty of fraud

In a win for the U.S. Justice Department, a federal jury has found two former JPMorgan Chase metals traders guilty of fraud . Gregg Smith and Michael Nowak manipulated gold markets for more than eight years with a tactic called "spoofing," the Justice Department contended. That's when traders place orders they'll later cancel, with the goal of getting other traders to adjust prices based on the artificial change in demand. In 2020, JPMorgan paid $920 million in a federal spoofing probe involving 15 traders, Bloomberg reports .

• Smith and Nowak were found guilty of attempted price manipulation, spoofing, commodities fraud, and wire fraud. They were cleared on conspiracy and racketeering charges.
• Jeffrey Ruffo, a sales executive on JPMorgan's precious-metals desk, was acquitted in the case.
• Here's what people are saying.

Carlyle CEO makes abrupt exit

The CEO of The Carlyle Group abruptly left the global investment firm, which said in a rare Sunday-evening statement that the exit came months before the end of an employment contract. Kewsong Lee was named co-CEO in 2017 and sole CEO in 2020, when former co-chief Glenn Youngkin — now the governor of Virginia — departed. Lee recently proposed a $300 million pay package for the coming five years and heard crickets from Carlyle's board, the Financial Times reported , citing unnamed sources. The board named co-founder Bill Conway as interim CEO and said it will "immediately" tap an executive-search firm to find its next leader. ?? Here's what people are saying.

U.S. cracks down on crypto laundering

The U.S. Treasury Department has slapped sanctions on popular crypto platform Tornado Cash , saying the service has been used by crooks and hackers to launder more than $7 billion in digital currency. Tornado Cash is a so-called crypto “mixer,” blending its users’ assets and allowing individuals to hide the origin and destination of their funds. The Lazarus Group, a North Korean-backed hacking group, has laundered at least $715 million in stolen crypto through Tornado Cash so far this year, according to the Treasury Department. Americans are now banned from using the platform.

• Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Semenov has defended the service , saying it protects the privacy of crypto traders worried about being targeted by kidnappers.
• Here's what people are saying.
• Canadian watchdogs join crypto probe : Canadian regulators are teaming up with their U.S. counterparts to investigate the billion-dollar downfall of the cryptocurrency exchange Celsius Network.

SoftBank CEO 'remorseful' after losses

Masayoshi Son, the multibillionaire CEO of Japanese tech giant SoftBank, said he is "quite embarrassed and remorseful" as the company reported a record quarterly loss of more than $23 billion. The conglomerate's London-headquartered venture capital unit, the Vision Fund, has been hit particularly hard by the global selloff in technology shares. Vision Fund portfolio companies such as food-delivery business DoorDash and office-space provider WeWork have seen their valuations plummet since SoftBank invested. ?? Here's what people are saying.

Musk sheds Tesla stock in Twitter row

CEO Elon Musk sold almost $7 billion of Tesla stock in the past week, as his dispute with Twitter rumbles on. The social media company is suing Musk over his rescinded offer to buy the platform, with the billionaire selling the Tesla shares to avoid an "emergency sale" of the stock should he be forced to buy Twitter. Musk has sold $32 billion of shares in Tesla this year; following an $8.5 billion sale in May, he tweeted: "No further TSLA sales planned after today." ?? Here's what people are saying.

Housing confidence takes a hit

Consumer confidence in the housing market has slumped to its lowest level since 2011, with both buyers and sellers feeling glum, according to a new Fannie Mae survey . Only 17% of respondents to the July poll think it’s a good time to buy, down from 20% in June. Meanwhile, the share of sellers who say it's a good time to list fell to 67% from 76% in May. Still, Zillow senior economist Orphe Divounguy says a "persistent housing deficit" means that prices are unlikely to fall, "at least not on a grand scale." ?? Here's what people are saying.

Latest M&A developments:

• TikTok owner dives into health care
• CVS mulls bid for Signify Health
• Amazon hoovers up Roomba for $1.7B
• Canada's Fairfax pitches food take-private deal
• Cox acquires Axios in $525M deal
• Musk, Twitter scuffle over metrics

With?Cate Chapman ,?Harriet Sinclair ,?Jake Perez , ?Saundra Latham ,?Theunis Bates ,?Ben Cousins , ?Sam Shead , Tanya Dua , and Alessandra Riemer .

What's your take on the week's news and other developments impacting you or your business? Join the conversation in the comments below.