Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Monday refused to discuss the potential impact on financial markets of the assassination attempt on former President Trump, instead using the opportunity to condemn political violence.
“I’m going to stay away from the markets for a second if I can and just say it was a very, very sad day for our country,” Powell told the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
“Political violence has no place in our society and I condemn it in the strongest terms, I know we all do. A man has been killed at a political rally. Two others have been seriously injured. It’s just a sad day,” he continued.
“I’m thankful that the former president’s injuries were not more serious,” Powell said, adding, “I don’t want to comment on the markets.”
Mr Powell was appointed Fed chair by President Donald Trump in 2017. But after raising interest rates in his first year as chairman, his relationship with Mr Powell quickly deteriorated, and Mr Trump has said he would not reappoint Mr Powell if he were re-elected.
Trump was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday in an assassination attempt that also killed rally-attendee Corey Comperatore, 50, and wounded two others.
The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was shot and killed by authorities moments later after opening fire from a nearby rooftop.
As of early afternoon Monday, markets were mostly stable, with the S&P 500 up 0.4%, the Nasdaq up 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.51%.
But a basket of stocks expected to benefit from a Republican victory in November rose 1.8% on Monday, their best performance since the start of the year, according to analysts. Sherwood News.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Inc., the parent company of Trump’s Truth social platform, were also up more than 35% as of 2 p.m.
As the Fed keeps interest rates steady at their highest level in two decades, Powell also noted Monday that recent inflation readings have given the central bank more confidence that inflation can fall to its 2 percent target.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell 0.1% in June, the first decline in prices since the pandemic began. Prices rose 3% year-over-year, down from a 3.3% annual rate in May.
Inflation is expected to peak at 9.1% in June 2022, the highest level in four decades, before falling significantly thereafter but stalling in early 2024.
“We didn’t make much more progress in the first quarter,” Powell said Monday. “In the second quarter, we’ve actually made some progress. We’ve had three rounds of improvement in metrics so far, averaging a pretty good pace.”
“The first quarter didn’t provide any additional confidence, but the three numbers in the second quarter, including last week’s, have probably provided some confidence,” he added.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, the market widely expects the Fed to leave rates unchanged at its meeting later this month and then start cutting rates in September.
