Donald Trump attacks the Fed as ‘the only problem’, and US markets plummet again
- The Dow dropped 2.91 per cent and the S&P 500 fell 2.71 per cent in shortened Christmas Eve trading
- Markets were already badly rattled by US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, after he said he had called banks and convened the ‘Plunge Protection Team’
US President Donald Trump has blasted the Federal Reserve, describing it as the “only problem” for the US economy, as top officials convened to discuss a rout in stock markets that saw them spiral downwards again on Monday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Christmas Eve down 2.91 per cent in shortened trading, while the broader S&P 500 was off by 2.71 per cent and the Nasdaq was down by 2.21 per cent. Even before Trump’s statement on Twitter, the markets had been badly rattled by an unusual weekend statement by US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in which he said he had called major banks and received reassurance they had “ample liquidity”.
US stocks have fallen sharply in recent weeks on concerns over slowing economic growth, with the S&P 500 on pace for its biggest percentage decline in December since the Great Depression.
In a tweet that did nothing to ease market concerns about the Fed’s cherished independence, Trump laid blame for the market woes firmly at the feet of the central bank.
“The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don’t have a feel for the market,” Trump said on Twitter.