Stocks are recovering after President Trump said it is “highly unlikely” that he’ll fire Fed Chair Powell, though he doesn’t rule that out.
The Dow is back in positive territory, while the S&P 500 is now flat, and the Nasdaq Composite is down 0.1%.
Reports of Trump firing the Fed chair were circulating after the president talked about it to a group of House Republicans who voiced approval. Trump acknowledged that discussion to reporters in the White House but said it is highly unlikely he’ll fire Powell “unless he has to leave for fraud. “
The dollar has also recovered and so have the bond markets as yields are now lower.
The market reaction to reports of Powell’s ouster–and the subsequent turn around– reflects a sinister reality: The stock market is bound to the president’s whims and what happens inside the White House’s four walls.
Under the Federal Reserve Act, a Federal Reserve governor can only be “sooner removed for cause by the President.” The cause that Trump repeatedly highlighted to reporters on Wednesday was the multi-billion dollar renovation of the Federal Reserve’s offices and the apparent lack of clearances for it.
At the same time, Trump is insisting the Fed is not doing its job by keeping rates intact. He called Powell a ‘knucklehead’ today. The Fed’s job is to keep inflation under control along with promoting maximum employment–a goal that requires the central bank to keep its political independence.