Trump wants cuts, but his own Fed chair looks set to hike
“A quarter point may be the opening move, not the final one,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, told Reuters. “The only durable path to lower borrowing costs is to contain inflation.”
The 10-year US Treasury yield hit 5 percent on Monday, Reuters reported, holding near that level despite a US$6bn buyback announcement from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
When the 10-year topped 4.95 percent last week, its highest since October 2023, the average US 30-year fixed mortgage rate surpassed 7 percent for the first time in over a year, according to CNBC.
US President Donald Trump told reporters at the Irish Open golf tournament on Sunday that the US “should be paying the lowest interest rate in the world” regardless of what Fed data show on inflation and the economy, Reuters reported.
Asked whether he expected a hike, Trump said he did not know, and two weeks earlier he posted on Truth Social that he would stop trading with countries the US runs a deficit with unless rates come down.
