IMF said the Fed's decision last week to hold interest rates unchanged was appropriate.

Japan Meteorological Agency: a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off the coast of Iwate Prefecture; maximum seismic intensity 6+ (Japan scale).

Venezuela experienced consecutive M7+ earthquakes, followed shortly by an M7.2 off Japan’s northeast coast; California recorded an M5.6 the same day. Lucy Jones, senior seismologist at Caltech, said the events are not causally linked: they occurred on different faults and plate boundaries, so one quake did not trigger another. Timing may be coincidental; each quake struck known active plate boundaries where stress has accumulated over decades to centuries, and while large quakes are part of the natural cycle in these regions, precise timing remains unpredictable.