Market updates live: Wall Street nears record highs
LIVE
By Kylie MacLellan, Heather Timmons, Christina Anagnostopoulos, Deborah Kyvrikosaios and Zoe Law
S&P 500 opens up 23.93 points or 0.39% at 6116.09
a minute ago
09:35 EDT
Dow Jones opens up 127.09 points, or 0.30% at 43,109.52
3 minutes ago
09:33 EDT
Nasdaq opens up 96.59 points or 0.48% at 20,070.14
4 minutes ago
09:32 EDT
09:29 EDT
Jeff Mason and Nandita Bose
Trump on Wednesday called Powell"terrible", in his latest attack on the central bank chief and said he has three or four people in mind as contenders for the top Fed job.
"I know within three or four people who I'm going to pick," Trump told reporters when asked if he is interviewing candidates to replace Powell.
The leading contenders reportedly include former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, National Economic Council head Kevin Hassett, current Fed Governor Christopher Waller, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Powell for not cutting interest rates and has floated the idea of firing him or naming a successor soon, though he nearly as often has walked back those threats, saying on June 12 at the White House, "I'm not going to fire him."
At the White House on Wednesday, Hassett declined to say whether he had spoken to Trump about Powell's replacement.
"I think the President will choose the person that he likes, and it's not going to be Jay Powell," Hassett said.
Some analysts see this as an effort to influence monetary policy through a "shadow" Fed chair even before Powell leaves office in May 2026.
Wall Street is on track for record highs
13 minutes ago
09:23 EDT
Kanchana Chakravarty and Nikhil Sharma
U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday, putting Wall Street on track to open near record highs.
The benchmark S&P 500 and tech-led Nasdaq were nearly 1% below their all-time peaks at Wednesday's close, supported by the de-escalation in Middle East hostilities.
Market enthusiasm may also be based on expectations that Trump will name a Federal Reserve chairman to replace Jerome Powell who will cut interest rates quickly.
There are growing expectations that the Fed will soon be cutting U.S. rates again following recent patchy data, but Trump's criticism of it for not moving quick enough has been escalating too.
He has repeatedly targeted Fed chief Powell, and his idea of naming a successor well before Powell leaves office would effectively create a shadow over the head of the U.S. central bank that could undermine him.
"I think it's a given that Trump's pick to succeed Powell, when it comes, will be one that sits at the highly dovish end of the spectrum and will support Trump's agenda of lowering interest rates," said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG.
Stay with us for the latest developments.
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