US President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday night that he had “no intention” of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and the markets didn’t wait long to react.
That one comment from the White House kicked off an after-hours rally across stocks and crypto, reversing earlier tension that had been building after Trump spent the last week trashing Powell and calling for his removal.
The president’s sudden but typical 180, after days of calling Powell a “major loser,” came hours after he’d demanded interest rates be cut and posted that Powell’s “termination cannot come fast enough.”
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 444 points, or 1.1%. S&P 500 futures climbed 1.4%, while Nasdaq 100 futures moved up 1.6%. That was just hours after the Dow had already finished the day up over 1,000 points, cutting short a four-day losing streak.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite also closed Tuesday with gains above 2%, sending a clear signal that investors were reacting directly to Trump’s remarks on Powell.
Dollar, Bitcoin and crypto push higher after Trump talks Powell
Bitcoin rose about 3% overnight, trading at $92,727 on Wednesday, right after Trump’s press comments hit. Smaller tokens joined the move: Ether, XRP, and Solana were all up in the hours after Trump gave Powell a pass.
The US dollar also surged by approximately 0.9% against the Japanese yen after a period of significant weakness, with the greenback having hit a three-year low against a basket of major currencies on April 21, as measured by the ICE Dollar Index, which fell to 97.92.
Trump’s decision not to remove Powell came right after Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, told investors in a private meeting Tuesday that the tariff war with China couldn’t be maintained by either side. He said both governments would need to find a way to de-escalate and avoid permanent damage to their economies.
More fuel landed on the crypto fire when a late-night report revealed that Cantor Fitzgerald LP, Tether Holdings Ltd., and SoftBank Group were in talks to build a $3 billion special purpose acquisition company that would be designed to absorb billions in crypto holdings.
Traders expect a short-term pullback while gold keeps rising
Despite the spike, some traders warned the move might not hold. Stefan von Haenisch, who leads over-the-counter trading in Asia-Pacific for Bitgo, said the crypto market had run too far, too fast. “The market has rallied relentlessly and feels a bit overbought here,” Stefan said. He added that a drop to $88,000 for Bitcoin would “not be unexpected” before the week is over.
While Bitcoin and stocks were climbing, some investors weren’t buying it. They’ve been shifting into gold for weeks, and that trend hasn’t stopped. Gold futures have surged over 8% this month, and on Tuesday they hit a record high of $3,509.90. People are keeping their cash in gold while they watch the political noise play out.
Jamie Cox, the managing partner at Harris Financial Group, said that move is temporary. “There is a ton of money hiding out in gold at the moment, so there’s plenty of unproductive money that will find its way back into the market at some point,” Jamie said. “The money is there, it’s just yellow at the moment.”
The big takeaway from all of this: one sentence from the President of the United States can still move every corner of global finance. Stocks, Bitcoin, gold, everything—it all reacts to Trump’s mood, especially when it’s about the Federal Reserve. On Monday he was ready to fire Powell. On Tuesday he changed his mind. By Wednesday morning, markets had added trillions in value.
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