President Trump criticized Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell Wednesday for not announcing a more aggressive rate-cutting policy.
The Fed dropped the target for its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, the first cut since 2008. It also said it would immediately stop the runoff of its bond portfolio. President Trump has been severely critical of the Fed for raising rates four times last year and continuing to shrink its huge bond portfolio, an operation known as quantitative tightening.
Stocks dropped sharply after Powell said in a press conference that Wednesday’s rate cut should not be viewed as the beginning of a long series of rate cuts.