{"id":11499,"date":"2026-01-12T03:48:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T03:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11499"},"modified":"2026-01-12T03:48:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T03:48:29","slug":"down-arrow-button-icon-59","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=11499","title":{"rendered":"Down Arrow Button Icon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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U.S. equity futures fell sharply Sunday night after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell confirmed that he is under investigation related to testimony he gave last June concerning the renovation of Federal Reserve buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The New York Times<\/em> report breaking news of the investigation and Powell\u2019s subsequent disclosure rattled markets, reviving fears that years of President Donald Trump pressuring the Federal Reserve could now be realized into a direct assault on its independence.<\/p>\n

Futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 led the decline, falling about 0.8%, as interest-rate-sensitive technology stocks bore the brunt of the selloff. S&P 500 futures were down roughly 0.5%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell about 0.4%, according to late-evening pricing.<\/p>\n

Investors sought protection in the traditional safe-haven assets. Gold futures rose 1.7% to around $4,578 an ounce, while silver jumped more than 4%, reflecting renewed demand for protection against political and monetary instability. The U.S. dollar weakened modestly against several major currencies, including the Swiss franc and Japanese yen.<\/p>\n

After years of largely staying silent while Trump repeatedly mocked and threatened him, Powell appeared to have reached a breaking point, issuing a rare and pointed statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He wrote that while \u201cNo one\u2014certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve\u2014is above the law,\u201d the attack should be seen in the \u201cthe broader context of the administration\u2019s threats and ongoing pressure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings\u2026Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.\u201d<\/p>\n

Economists warn that if the executive branch successfully co-opts the Fed, it could create a \u201cself-fulfilling prophecy\u201d of higher long-term inflation. <\/p>\n

As Oxford Economics recently noted, any \u201ccracks in the Fed\u2019s independence\u201d could spread rapidly through markets and ultimately raise borrowing costs for the businesses the administration seeks to protect with low interest rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a note published last July, when Trump publicly threatened to fire Powell, Deutsche Bank warned that such a move could spark severe market disruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the currency and the bond market can collapse,\u201d the bank wrote, citing heightened risks of inflation and financial instability. \u201cThe empirical and academic evidence on the impact of a loss of central-bank independence is fairly clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wall Street executives have echoed those concerns. Brian Moynihan, chief executive of Bank of America, said recently the erosion of Fed independence would carry serious consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market will punish people if we don\u2019t have an independent Fed,\u201d Moynihan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Arrow #Button #Icon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. equity futures fell sharp… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[3816,113,3817,486,1542,3818,4382,2187,166,1994,91],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}