Market Talk: The Bank of England Easing, Trump’s FED choice, Intel, and China.
The Bank of England (BOE) Easing
The BOE cut the rate, and yet the vote for easing reduced from a projected 8 votes to 5, while the remaining are supportive of the rate unchanged. This called for a hawkish tone, which has sparked the GBPUSD higher after the data was released.
However, there is rising speculation that the BOE might reduce the balance sheet runoff, as the current pace is already cracking the bond market and raising some debt concerns. This could be seen as a move to ease quantitative tightening. ***ONLY Speculation***
TRUMP
Meanwhile, Trump also temporarily chose Miran as the Federal Reserve (FED) Governor until January 31st, 2026, at least before the old term ended. This could also pave more way for further easing from the Federal Reserve since Miran also stands by Trump’s side, albeit a political conflict of interest will be very likely.
As for the FED chair, Trump’s team now favors choosing Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller as a potential option for his deep knowledge of the Federal Reserve system and his willingness to ease. The other two options—Trump recently downgraded the FED choice to three—are still opting for Kevin Warsh and Kevin Hassett.
So if everyone is still on board with this current trend, then the monetary easing bets would be very likely.
Aside from that, Trump also called out Intel’s CEO to resign before the market opens by stating that “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign immediately.” With that, Intel stock dropped by approximately 3%, given the threat imposed on their CEO. Although this could be considered a one-time threat, if this goes on and the CEO does not take action in time, then the stock is likely to fall further.
Possible Extension:
According to US Commerce Secretary Lutnick, “The US is likely to extend the China deadline for another 90 days.” If so, then gold will be another downfall. However, do note that this could be just a rumor.
