Two Powerball players in Missouri and Texas have won a combined jackpot of about $1.8 billion, the second-largest in US lottery history, the game’s website said early Sunday.

The winning numbers drawn late Saturday were white balls 11, 23, 44, 61, 62 and the red Powerball 17.

The prize will be split between the two ticket holders, whose identities were not disclosed. Each winner can choose between an annuitized cash payout of $893.5 million or a lump-sum of $410.3 million.

The annuitized prize is paid in installments over 30 years, while the lump sum offers a reduced, one-time payout upfront, before taxes are deducted.

Saturday’s drawing was the 42nd since the last jackpot was won on May 31, a new record for the longest run in Powerball history. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, and the lottery is drawn three times a week.

The $1.787 billion prize falls just short of the record $2.04 billion jackpot won by a single ticket in California in November 2022.

Powerball tickets, which cost $2, are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump’s short list of candidates to succeed Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve now includes his aide Kevin Hassett, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and current Fed Governor Christopher Waller.

Trump told reporters at the White House that the three men were the finalists for appointments to the Fed, adding he would consider Scott Bessent, too, but that the Treasury secretary was not interested.

Bessent, who was with the president in the Oval Office, confirmed his lack of interest.

“I had four,” Trump said. “Now I’m talking about three. He (Bessent) told me: ‘I’m not leaving’.”

The president has made clear he intends to install a Fed leader more aligned with his push for rapid interest-rate cuts, browbeating Powell for being “too late” to act on borrowing costs and for hurting home buyers with higher mortgage rates.

Powell’s Fed has kept rates on hold all year on concern that Trump’s tariffs could reignite inflation, although recently his concerns have shifted to center more on the slowing labor market.

The choice of a Fed chair will carry high stakes for financial markets, which closely watch Fed leadership changes for clues about the direction of interest rates, inflation policy and the central bank’s independence.

U.S. job growth weakened sharply in August and the unemployment rate increased to nearly a four-year high of 4.3%, the Labor Department said on Friday, confirming that labor market conditions were softening.

Powell last month noted downside risks to the labor market that “may warrant” a careful policy adjustment, remarks that financial markets and analysts took to mean he would likely support a quarter-point interest-rate cut in September.

That’s far short of the several percentage points of cuts that Trump has demanded.

Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, has been a reliable advocate for Trump’s tariffs and other policies, and agrees with Trump that the Fed has kept rates inappropriately high.

Warsh has repeatedly called for “regime change” at the Fed.

Waller, who ran the St. Louis Fed’s research department before Trump picked him to be Fed governor in 2020, would be an institutionalist pick.

Bessent released a barrage of criticism against the Fed on Friday and called for a full review of the central bank’s operations, from staffing to research to monetary policy. — Reuters

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order offering some tariff exemptions as soon as Monday to trading partners who strike deals on industrial exports such as nickel, gold and other metals, as well as pharmaceutical compounds and chemicals.

Trump has spent his first seven months in office building up massive tariff increases to reorder the global trading system, cut US trade deficits and extract concessions from trading partner countries in negotiations.

His latest order identifies more than 45 categories for zero import tariffs from “aligned partners” who clinch framework pacts to cut Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs and duties imposed under the Section 232 national security statute.

Friday’s order brings US tariffs in line with its commitments in existing framework deals, including those with allies such as Japan and the European Union.

The exemptions for countries with US trade deals are set to begin at 12:01 a.m. EDT/0401 GMT on Monday, it said.

In the order, Trump says his willingness to reduce tariffs depends on the “scope and economic value of a trading partner’s commitments to the United States in its agreement on reciprocal trade” and US national interests.

The cuts cover items that “cannot be grown, mined, or naturally produced in the United States” or produced in sufficient volume to meet domestic demand.

A White House official said it also creates new carveouts for some agricultural products, aircraft and parts, and non-patented articles for use in pharmaceuticals.

In situations where a country has struck a “reciprocal” trade deal with the United States, this will allow the US Trade Representative, the Commerce Department and customs to waive tariffs on covered imports without a new executive order from Trump, the official said.

The zero-tariff items identified in the order include graphite and various forms of nickel, a key ingredient in stainless steel manufacturing and electric vehicle batteries.

Also covered are compounds used in generic pharmaceuticals, including the anesthetic lidocaine and reagents used in medical diagnostic tests.

The order encompasses various types of gold imports, from powders and leaf to bullion, a key import from Switzerland, which is struggling with US tariffs of 39% as it has not yet reached a trade deal. 

The order also permits tariffs to be scrapped on natural graphite, neodymium magnets, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and eliminates previous tariff exemptions on certain plastics and polysilicon, a key component of solar panels. — Reuters