Finance
Fed’s Powell has had no contact with Trump after president said he’ll demand rates drop
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday he has not spoken to President Donald Trump since last week’s remarks by the president when he said he would demand the central bank lower interest rates.
Speaking after the central bank’s decision to hold interest rates steady, Powell said he has had “no contact” with Trump since the remarks, which came during a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“I’m not going to have any response or comment whatsoever on what the president said. It’s not appropriate for me to do so. The public should be confident that we will continue to do our work as we always have, focusing on using our tools to achiever our goals and really keeping our heads down and doing our work,” Powell said Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve is designed to make interest rate decisions independent of pressure from elected officials. However, Trump in his first term was unusually vocal with his opinions on what the central bank should do.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Katie Stockton thinks she has a viable option for investors trying to withstand wild market swings.
She manages the Fairlead Tactical Sector ETF (TACK), which is designed to be nimble in times of market stress. It’s not tied to an index.
“What we try to do is help investors leverage the upside through sector rotation, but also minimize drawdowns,” the Fairlead Strategies founder told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “That’s obviously a big advantage longer term when you can just go into a less deep hole to climb out of.”
According to Stockton, her ETF is particularly nimble in this environment because it uses multiple strategies — not just one. Since President Donald Trump announced his “reciprocal” tariffs on April 2, the ETF has fallen just over 4%, while the S&P 500 has lost 6.9%.
Stockton’s ETF rotates monthly between all 11 S&P 500 sectors.
“We don’t own technology anymore,” Stockton said. “Some of the sectors that we like to invest in have fallen out of favor.”
As of April 16, the fund’s top sector holdings included consumer staples, utilities and real estate, according to Fairlead Strategies.
As of Thursday’s close, the Fairlead Tactical Sector ETF is down 4% so far this year.
Meanwhile, ETFs that are centered around specific sectors or strategies are largely under pressure. For example, the Invesco Top QQQ Trust (QBIG), which tracks the top 45% of companies in the Nasdaq-100 index, is down 22% in 2025.
The GraniteShares YieldBoost TSLA ETF (TSYY) is off 48% since the beginning of the year.
BTIG’s Troy Donohue, the firm’s head of Americas portfolio trading, thinks Stockton’s ETF employs a sound strategy – particularly during the recent “dramatic pullback.”
“TACK is a great example of how you can be nimble during these market times,” Donohue said. “It’s great to see it in an ETF product that has performed really well during this recent drawdown.”
Sign at the entrance to a Capital One bank branch in Manhattan.
Erik Mcgregor | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Capital One Financial‘s application to acquire Discover Financial Services in a $35.3 billion all-stock deal has officially been approved by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the regulators announced on Friday.
“The Board evaluated the application under the statutory factors it is required to consider, including the financial and managerial resources of the companies, the convenience and needs of the communities to be served by the combined organization, and the competitive and financial stability impacts of the proposal,” the Fed said in a release.
Capital One first announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Discover in February 2024. It will also indirectly acquire Discover Bank through the transaction.
Under the agreement, Discover shareholders will receive 1.0192 Capital One shares for each Discover share or about a 26% premium from Discover’s closing price of $110.49 at the time, Capital One said in a release.
Capital One and Discover are among the largest credit card issuers in the U.S., and the merger will expand Capital One’s deposit base and its credit card offerings.
After the deal closes, Capital One shareholders will hold 60% of the combined company, while Discover shareholders own 40%, according to the February 2024 release.
In a joint statement, Capital One and Discover said they expect to close the deal on May 18.
WATCH: Jamie Dimon on Capital One’s $35.3 billion Discover acquisition: ‘Let them compete’
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