ASX 200 tumbles after Donald Trump's attack on Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell sends Wall Street plummeting

Sky News AU

22-04-2025

The ASX 200 initially dropped about one per cent on Tuesday after markets tumbled in the US when Donald Trump lashed out at Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell for failing to lower interest rates.
Medical tech company Mesoblast sank 4.2 per cent, while uranium miners Deep Yellow (down 5.5 per cent) and Paladin Energy (down about 5.5 per cent) have dropped since the market opened on Tuesday.
The tech and energy sectors are down about two per cent while real estate has dropped more than 1.5 per cent.
The ASX 200 has recovered some losses since opening and hovers about half a per cent lower than its closing price on Thursday afternoon.
Wall Street tumbled on Monday after Trump lashed the Federal Reserve chairman, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, in a scathing social media post where the US President demanded an interest rate cut.
Trump labelled Mr Powell a 'major loser' and claimed there was 'virtually no inflation' and that energy and food prices were 'trending down'.
'With these costs trending so nicely downward, just what I predicted they would do, there can almost be no inflation, but there can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.
'Europe has already 'lowered' seven times.
'Powell has always been 'Too Late,' except when it came to the Election period when he lowered in order to help Sleepy Joe Biden, later Kamala, get elected. How did that work out?'
The US President's attack is just one of many against the Federal Reserve chairman and follows a White House executive saying Trump was looking into whether he could fire Mr Powell.
Markets fell after the post went live with the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropping about 2.5 per cent, the S&P 500 fall 2.4 per cent and the NYSE sinking 1.8 per cent by the end of the day.
Gold has surged to a new record high as investors turn to the valuable commodity amid fears the trade war between China and the US will continue to escalate.
Sky News Business Reporter Ed Boyd said this was a boon for gold stocks with West African Resources up almost four per cent, Regis Resources rising more than two per cent and Westgold Resources jumping 2.5 per cent on Tuesday.
'We've never seen the price of gold as high as it is right now,' Boyd said.
'Investors are flocking to gold over the past year.'
Gold is up more than 40 per cent over the past 12 months and has now surpassed US$3400.
New Zealand's NZX 50 Index is down about 0.9 per cent as Japan's Nikkei 225 is down about 0.3 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI 200 opened relatively flat on Tuesday.