Trump denies plan to fire Fed chair Powell
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Wall Street is drifting toward the finish of its third winning week in the last four. NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting on Friday toward the finish of its third winning week in the last four, as more big U.S. companies deliver stronger profits for the spring than analysts expected.
Wall Street opened higher on Friday as market sentiment continued to be upbeat, a day after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at record highs. The S&P 500 (SP500) +0.3%, the Dow (DJI) +0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) +0.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said policymakers should cut interest rates this month to boost a job market that looks to be weakening.
A healthy crop of earnings helped European stocks bust out of a four-day losing streak on Thursday, Wall Street was watching Netflix and the dollar bounced after U.S. President Donald Trump quashed talk he was about to fire Fed head Jerome Powell.
This past April, when President Donald Trump started flirting with the notion of firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, stocks and the dollar tumbled because investors worried that even talking about such a move crossed a red line.
Many on Wall Street have privately worried that political pressure will undermine the Federal Reserve’s credibility.
Consumers' inflation expectations, by some measures, are also the highest in decades. Inflation has been above the Fed's 2% target for over four years, and the prospect of a dovish Fed under the stewardship of a new Trump-friendly Chair could keep it that way.