Market Talks covering the impact of U.S. Politics and White House policies on companies and markets. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
1952 ET - As the White House has mounted an escalating campaign to exert more influence over the Fed over the past 12 months, Chair Jerome Powell has tried consistently to stay out of the politics. After the Department of Justice served the Fed with subpoenas relating to Powell's Senate testimony about the central bank's headquarters renovation, Powell's response Sunday night is his most forceful pushback yet. The executive branch's concern about the renovation and his testimony are "pretexts," Powell says in the statement. Instead, he asserts, "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." (matt.grossman@wsj.com; @mattgrossman)
1943 ET - The Department of Justice's unprecedented move to serve the Federal Reserve with subpoenas relates to a project to renovate the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Fed's board of governors. Over the summer, President Trump and his allies criticized the project's expense, and some in Trump's orbit alleged that Fed Chair Jerome Powell had misled Congress about the details. The Fed rebutted those allegations. After Trump toured the construction project in late July to see it for himself, he mostly seemed to move on from the issue, at least in public. Now, with the subpoenas, the construction project threatens to become a historic turning point in the relationship between the White House and the U.S. central bank. (matt.grossman@wsj.com, @mattgrossman)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 11, 2026 19:52 ET (00:52 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments