“The U.S. labor market is steadily losing steam as evidenced by the staggering downward revisions and a declining labor force participation rate,” Bullard added. This slowdown should feed through to hiring and business investment activity, and lead to soft, yet still positive, GDP growth in the second half of the year.”

On Wednesday, new GDP numbers showed that in the first half of the year, the economy grew at an annual rate of less than 1.3 percent. On Thursday, new inflation numbers showed that the personal consumption expenditures price index jumped by 2.

Since the first introduction in early April, the Trump administration's tariffs have sparked widespread criticism from both sides of the aisle. They have also triggered sharp declines in financial markets and increased global economic uncertainty,