
Point72's Cohen sees economic slowdown amid tariff confusion
NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) - Point72 Asset Management's founder, Steven Cohen, said on Wednesday he believes the U.S. economy will very likely slow down because of tariff threats, but even so the Federal Reserve will not act immediately to cut interest rates.
'We don't think the Fed's going to act right away, because they're still going to be worried about inflation from tariffs,' he said at the Sohn investment conference in New York. Cohen said he expects GDP to grow by 1.5% next year.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
S&P Global 'positive' on Wells Fargo as regulatory burden lifts
June 6 (Reuters) - S&P Global (SPGI.N), opens new tab upgraded its outlook on Wells Fargo (WFC.N), opens new tab to "positive" from "stable", the ratings provider said on Friday, after the U.S. bank was released from a $1.95 trillion asset cap earlier this week. The U.S. Federal Reserve's unprecedented, seven-year long punitive measure was imposed on Wells in 2018 and restricted balance sheet growth so the bank could address rampant governance and compliance concerns that had been brought to light in a fake accounts scandal in 2016. The Fed's unanimous decision on Tuesday capped years of efforts by the bank to repair the damage and pay off billions of dollars in fines, sending Wells Fargo shares to a three-month high a day later. The stock has gained nearly 8.3% in a year where the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab has remained flat. "The positive outlook on the holding company reflects our view that Wells Fargo has substantially improved its underlying governance, risk, and control profile, allowing for the removal of the Fed's asset cap," said S&P. S&P also expects Wells to expand its commercial and investment banking business, "the unit most affected by the asset cap and one that had to turn away some nonoperational deposits from customers." While the fourth-largest U.S. lender was forced to carefully manage wholesale deposits and its markets business, assets of peer JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), opens new tab swelled by nearly $2 trillion since the start of 2018, while those of Bank of America (BAC.N), opens new tab and PNC Financial (PNC.N), opens new tab added about $1 trillion and nearly $200 billion, respectively.


Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Fed's Harker says rate cuts this year still possible, amid data quality worries
June 6 (Reuters) - As he heads toward retirement at month's end, Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker says interest rate cuts remain a possibility this year amid a very uncertain economic landscape, as he also flagged worries about the quality of economic data policymakers use to make their decisions. When it comes to easing monetary policy, 'it's possible, I would never take it off the table,' Harker said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. 'If the signals are such that inflation doesn't look like it's moving rapidly north, but unemployment does then, yeah, I could definitely see making one or more cuts this year, but it's hard to say at this point.' Harker was interviewed in the final weeks of his tenure, as he's set to retire at the end of June after taking the reins of the Philadelphia Fed in 2015. The Fed next meets on June 17-18 when it is universally expected to hold its interest rate target steady at between 4.25% and 4.5%. What happens later in the year is up in the air, as the Trump administration's chaotic trade policy featuring ever-changing high import taxes will likely drive up inflation and lower employment. The question facing Fed officials is whether the inflation rise is a one-off or the makings of something more enduring. Those uncertainties have blunted officials' ability to provide guidance on the monetary policy outlook and have pushed them into signaling a wait-and-see attitude. Harker, an engineer by training who led the University of Delaware before coming to the Fed, said in the interview that he was increasingly worried about the quality of the data policymakers in general rely on. Data, including that produced by the government, is 'not good. It's not getting better,' Harker said. 'It's not just inflation data but a whole host of data, so we're increasingly flying blind, or at least half blind.' Harker's worries about the state of data come in the wake of reports the government was cutting back on resources devoted to compiling the closely watched consumer price index, which provides a critical reading that informs things like the wage changes in union contracts and the setting of social security benefits.


Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Fed should cut interest rate by a full point, Trump says
June 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve should cut interest rates by a full percentage point, President Donald Trump said on Friday as he reiterated his view that Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been too slow to lower borrowing costs. "Europe has had 10 rate cuts, we have had none. Despite (Powell), our Country is doing great. Go for a full point," Trump wrote in a social media post. Central banks typically limit rate moves to quarter point changes. Trump said the Fed could always raise rates again if cuts led to inflation. The president has repeatedly berated Powell for not cutting rates as he desires. The two men met face-to-face for the first time last week, with Trump telling Powell he was making a "mistake" by not lowering rates. The Fed in May left the policy rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range, where it has been since December, and policymakers have since signaled they may leave it there for another few months as they wait for more clarity on Trump's tariff policy.