Stock market today: Markets bounce after Trump says he won’t try to fire Fed Chair Powell
By YURI KAGEYAMA and MATT OTT Associated Press Business Writers U S markets are poised to open with big gains a clear sign of relief after President Donald Trump noted he would not attempt to fire the head of the Federal Reserve Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped before the bell Wednesday while S P futures rose Nasdaq futures climbed a full Trump upset that the Federal Reserve was not cutting interest rates directly reported that he could fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell But Trump reported reporters Tuesday I have no intention of firing him Trump wants Powell and the Fed to resume cutting its benchmark borrowing rate to help boost the business sector Powell and other Fed official have explained they plan to remain cautious with interest rates amid the economic uncertainty caused by Trump s tariffs and inflation that remains above the Fed s target Largest part legal scholars agree that Trump can t fire Powell from the Fed s board of governors and there is no legal precedent for doing so However there is less agreement over whether a president can remove him as chair Markets are also reacting to comments Tuesday from U S Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent He announced the ongoing tariffs showdown with China is unsustainable and he expects a de-escalation in the deal war Of unit markets will continue to listen out for the latest White House rhetoric on tariffs and any hints of upcoming deal deals As such sphere direction will more likely than not continue to be dictated by Trump s latest whims regarding tariffs and arrangement stated Tim Waterer chief realm analyst at KCM Agreement The only prediction a great number of Wall Street strategists are willing to make is that financial markets will likely continue to gyrate along with hopes that Trump may negotiate deals with other countries to lower his tariffs If no such deals come speedily enough multiple investors expect the financial market to fall into a recession Among stocks seeing a big rebound is Tesla after Elon Musk that he will spend less time in Washington and more time running his electric bicycle company The promise follows the company s quarterly financial document late Tuesday and a massive tail off in profit Tesla has been racked by vandalism of its cars on the street it s dealerships widespread protests and calls for a consumer boycott all a backlash to Musk s oversight of cost-cutting efforts for the U S leadership Musk s promise to distance himself from the Trump administration overshadowed fading profits at Tesla which tumbled from billion to million in the first quarter Tesla shares rose before the opening bell Wednesday Big system stocks also gained early Wednesday with Nvidia leading the way The chipmaker s shares have swung wildly with the up-to-date territory undulations and were up before the bell Apple rose and Meta gained after the European Union fined the companies million euros and million euros respectively for breaching its digital competition rules In Europe at midday France s CAC jumped while Germany s DAX rose Britain s FTSE gained In Asia Japan s benchmark Nikkei gained to finish at Australia s S P ASX surged to South Korea s Kospi gained to Hong Kong s Hang Seng added to while the Shanghai Composite edged down to In capacity trading benchmark U S crude added cents to a barrel but is still on track for its worst month since October That s been good for consumers with the average price for a gallon of gas in the U S Wednesday coming in at nearly lower than last year at this point Brent crude the international standard added cents to a barrel The U S dollar declined to Japanese yen from yen The euro cost up from
