Trump backs off threat to fire Fed Chair Powell as stock market surges
Al Jazeera
Wall Street rallies as US Treasury Secretary says trade war with China ‘unsustainable’.
United States President Donald Trump has backed off his threat to fire the head of the US Federal Reserve, after his broadsides against the central bank boss prompted a plunge in the stock market and the dollar.
Trump’s comments on Tuesday appeared to rule out any imminent plans to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom the US president has repeatedly criticised for not moving faster to lower interest rates.
“The press runs away with things. I have no intention of firing him,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates. This is the perfect time to lower interest rates. If he doesn’t, is it the end? No, it’s not.”
US stock futures, which are traded outside of regular market hours, surged following Trump’s comments, with contracts linked to the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 rising more than 1.70 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively.
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