“I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately,” Trump told an assembly of world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. “And likewise, they should be dropping all over the world. Interest rates should follow us all over.”
But Fed decisionmakers held rates steady on Wednesday, their case strengthened by government data that showed the number of jobs added nationally in December shattered expectations by more than 100,000.
Nonfarm payrolls surged in December, with employers creating an estimated 156,000 jobs in that month, and a slight decrease in underlying inflation wasn’t enough to shift market expectations toward a January cut.
CoreLogic chief economist Selma Hepp said that the national economy had shown continuing resilience against long-term economic challenges – meaning there was no immediate cause for the Fed to continue bringing rates lower.
“With the economic activity expected to remain robust and continue to post a 2%+ growth rate, the case for further monetary loosening in the coming months is increasingly less compelling,” Hepp said.
“Nevertheless, there are sectors of the economy, such as the housing market and pockets of the income spectrum, that are challenged by high rates and overall high prices.”