President Trump has been vocal about his criticism about the way Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has doled out little-to-no interest rate cuts, and he was quick to complain again on Wednesday after the Fed announced a rate cut half of what markets were hoping for.
“No ‘guts,’ no sense, no vision,” Trump tweeted after the announcement.
FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto, host of “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” said he wasn’t surprised to see more criticism from Trump.
“He’s clearly disappointed,” Cavuto said. “He wants bigger and quicker cuts, and he’s not getting them. Suffice it to say, Hell hath no fury like a president, especially this president, disappointed yet again.”
Cavuto said he understood the president’s concern, but also noted that economies in some of the countries lowering their rates “aren’t exactly firing on all cylinders” and aren’t necessarily something the U.S. should emulate.
“My issue is the economy already is strong, or certainly strong enough that the Federal Reserve doesn’t have to be doing this,” he said.
David Asman, co-anchor “Bulls & Bears,” said it’s unlikely that Trump will actually fire Powell as some have suggested and noted that some voting Fed members wanted no interest rate cuts at all.
“He’s worried that with Europe and Japan issues $16 trillion worth of negative interest rate bonds, pour rates have to come down more to make our exports more competitive,” Asman said. “He’s got a point that the Fed has an important role in maintaining the dollar’s parity against foreign currencies.”
It was the second interest rate cut in three months, lowering the federal funds rate between 1.75 percent and 2 percent. Officials with the Fed said they made the cut “to keep the economy strong.”
Connell McShane, co-host of “After the Bell,” noted that recent data has shown that the economy is hanging in pretty well, despite slowing in certain areas, like manufacturing.
“That’s why you could easily make arguments for Powell and company to cut rates and/or leave them as is. It’s also why we see so much disagreement, or diversity, on the committee itself,” McShane said. “However, most investors were looking for a cut and we likely would have seen a large stock market sell-off if we didn’t get one.”
Cavuto believes the markets seemed “more confused than relieved” by the news of Wednesday's cut.
“We swung within a more-than-200-point range before stocks ended the day kind of where they began,” he said. “Remember, confusion isn’t always better, especially when it comes to the Federal Reserve and whether it’s going to cut rates again or not.”