US President Donald Trump said he wasn’t planning to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, after reports of an imminent termination triggered market turmoil.
Stocks plunged, Treasury bonds sold off, and the dollar weakened following reports that Trump drafted a letter to fire Powell and asked Republican lawmakers for their opinion — the market reaction was “presumably the exact opposite of what Trump is hoping for economically,” Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal said.
Trump later said a removal is “highly unlikely,” though he renewed his criticism of Powell for not cutting interest rates.
Wall Street stabilized, but the swings showed how any attempt to fire Powell could trigger “revolt in global markets, including a possible collapse in the dollar and US bonds,” CNN wrote.