{"id":71954,"date":"2026-09-18T09:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T13:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/us-industrial-production-stagnates-in-august-as-trump-expands-medicaid-drug-pricing-model\/71954\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T09:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T13:38:13","slug":"us-industrial-production-stagnates-in-august-as-trump-expands-medicaid-drug-pricing-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/us-industrial-production-stagnates-in-august-as-trump-expands-medicaid-drug-pricing-model\/71954\/","title":{"rendered":"US Industrial Production Stagnates in August as Trump Expands Medicaid Drug Pricing Model"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>US industrial production remained flat (0.0%) in August<\/strong>, significantly missing economist expectations of a <strong>0.3% increase<\/strong> and signaling a cooling in the manufacturing sector.<\/li>\n<li><strong>President Trump is set to unveil a nationwide Medicaid drug pricing model<\/strong> covering all 50 states and territories, aiming to link domestic prices to the &quot;most-favored-nation&quot; (MFN) rates paid by other developed countries.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fed Vice Chair Michelle Bowman announced an upcoming overhaul of bank stress tests<\/strong>, promising more transparency and predictable capital requirements for major lenders in the &quot;coming weeks.&quot;<\/li>\n<li><strong>US exporters shipped 111,000 tons of soybeans to China<\/strong>, as trade talks between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese officials continue ahead of a high-stakes presidential summit.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck near Nikolski, Alaska<\/strong>, though authorities reported no tsunami threat and minimal risk of structural damage due to the remote location.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Industrial Output Falters Amid Manufacturing Slump<\/h2>\n<p>The U.S. industrial sector showed signs of fatigue in August, with <strong>total industrial production recording 0.0% growth<\/strong>, according to Federal Reserve data released Friday. This performance fell short of the <strong>0.3% expansion<\/strong> projected by analysts and followed a revised <strong>0.2% gain<\/strong> in July.<\/p>\n<p>The primary drag on the index was <strong>manufacturing output, which dropped 0.3%<\/strong> during the month. Within the sector, <strong>motor vehicles and parts saw a 1.2% decline<\/strong>, while mining edged up a marginal <strong>0.1%<\/strong>. Conversely, <strong>utilities output surged 1.8%<\/strong>, providing the only significant upward pressure on the headline figure. <strong>Capacity utilization<\/strong> remained steady at <strong>76.3%<\/strong>, slightly below the <strong>76.4%<\/strong> forecast.<\/p>\n<h2>Trump Administration Scales Up Drug Pricing Reform<\/h2>\n<p>The White House is moving forward with a major expansion of its healthcare agenda, with President Trump expected to host governors today to tout a <strong>new Medicaid drug pricing model<\/strong>. The plan will reportedly extend &quot;most-favored-nation&quot; pricing to all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico, ensuring Medicaid programs pay no more than the lowest price available in other high-income nations.<\/p>\n<p>The administration has already secured voluntary agreements with <strong>26 pharmaceutical companies<\/strong>, including industry giants like Eli Lilly (<a href=\"\/stock\/LLY\">LLY<\/a>), Pfizer (<a href=\"\/stock\/PFE\">PFE<\/a>), and Johnson &amp; Johnson (<a href=\"\/stock\/JNJ\">JNJ<\/a>). These deals currently cover approximately <strong>89% of the branded drug market<\/strong>. Officials estimate the initiative could eventually save Americans over <strong>$600 billion<\/strong> by rebalancing international pricing structures.<\/p>\n<h2>Fed Signals Regulatory Relief for Big Banks<\/h2>\n<p>In a speech delivered in London, <strong>Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman<\/strong> detailed plans to modernize the U.S. bank regulatory framework. Bowman stated that the Fed will soon finalize a revamped <strong>stress test process<\/strong> designed to be more transparent and less volatile for the nation&#39;s largest financial institutions.<\/p>\n<p>Key changes include a new rule to <strong>average the results of a bank\u2019s two most recent stress tests<\/strong> when setting capital buffers, a move intended to reduce year-to-year fluctuations. Bowman noted that the updated framework will &quot;close the book on an opaque and unnecessarily unpredictable&quot; system, allowing the public and banks to better understand the underlying models and variables used by regulators.<\/p>\n<h2>Agricultural Trade and Seismic Activity<\/h2>\n<p>On the trade front, <strong>US exporters confirmed the shipment of 111,000 tons of soybeans to China<\/strong>. This comes as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent prepares to meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng this weekend to discuss agricultural tariff cuts. The talks serve as a precursor to a planned summit between President Trump and President Xi Jinping scheduled for September 24 in Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, the <strong>USGS reported a 6.5 magnitude earthquake<\/strong> 169 km west of Nikolski, Alaska, at a depth of approximately 108 km. While the quake was powerful, its depth and remote location in the Aleutian Islands resulted in no tsunami warnings or reported injuries. Experts noted a <strong>43% chance of magnitude 5.0+ aftershocks<\/strong> occurring within the next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways US industrial production remained flat (0.0%) in August, significantly missing economist expectations of a 0.3% increase and signaling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[8467,3710,16114,5183,5310,5859,6681,6871,7326,7894,8408],"class_list":["post-71954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-soybeans","tag-federal-reserve","tag-alaska-earthquake","tag-industrial-production","tag-us-economy","tag-medicaid","tag-pfizer-pfe-stock-pfe","tag-eli-lilly-lly-stock-lly","tag-drug-pricing","tag-mfn","tag-michelle-bowman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}