Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Monday declined to discuss the potential financial market impact of the attempted assassination of former President Trump and instead used the moment to denounce political violence.
“I think I’ll leave the markets out of it for a second if I can and just say that it was a really, very sad day for our country,” Powell said at The Economic Club in Washington, D.C.
“Political violence has no place in our society, and I condemn it in the strongest terms. I know we all do. A man died at a political rally. Two other people were critically injured. It’s just a sad day,” he continued.
“I’m grateful that the injures to the former president were not more serious,” Powell added. “I’d rather not comment on the markets.”
Powell was nominated as chair of the Fed by Trump in 2017. However, his relationship with the former president quickly soured after raising rates in his first year as chair, and Trump has said he would not reappoint Powell if reelected.
Trump was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday. The assassination attempt also claimed the life of one rallygoer, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, and injured two others.
The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pa., was fatally shot by authorities moments after firing from a nearby rooftop.
The markets were mostly stable as of early Monday afternoon, with the S&P 500 up 0.4 percent, the Nasdaq up 0.4 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.51 percent.
However, a basket of stocks expected to benefit from a GOP victory in November were up 1.8 percent on Monday, their best showing since the start of the year, according to an analysis by Sherwood News.
Shares of Trump Media and Technology Corp., the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social platform, were also up more than 35 percent as of 2 p.m.
As the Fed continues to hold interest rates at a two-decade high, Powell also noted Monday that recent inflation readings have given the central bank greater confidence that inflation may be moving back down to its target of 2 percent.
The consumer price index dipped 0.1 percent in June, the first time that prices have fallen since the pandemic. Prices rose 3 percent year-over-year, declining from an annual rate of 3.3 percent in May.
At its peak in June 2022, inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.1 percent. It has since fallen significantly but appeared to stall in the beginning of 2024.
“In the first quarter, we didn’t make any more progress,” Powell said Monday. “In the second quarter, actually, we did make some more progress. We’ve had now three better readings, and if you average them, that’s a pretty good pace.”
“I would say we didn’t gain any additional confidence in the first quarter, but the three readings in the second quarter, including the one from last week, do add somewhat to confidence,” he added.
Markets largely expect the Fed to begin cutting interest rates in September after keeping rates steady at its meeting later this month, according to the CME FedWatch tool.