FT : Donald Trump says he has ‘no intention’ of firing Jay Powell

Donald Trump says he has ‘no intention’ of firing Jay Powell
Markets and dollar rise after US president eases pressure on Fed chair

Donald Trump has said he has “no intention” of firing US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, sending global stocks and the dollar higher.

The president has repeatedly hit out against the Fed chair’s refusal to cut interest rates and last week signalled he believed he could dismiss Powell before his term as central bank head comes to an end in May 2026. 

Trump reiterated his complaints that the Fed needed to cut borrowing costs in comments in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon, but he added: “I don’t want to talk about that because I have no intention of firing him.”

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose during Asian trading on Wednesday. The dollar index gained 0.3 per cent, extending its recovery after hitting a three-year low on Monday.

US bonds rallied, with yields on 10-year Treasuries falling 0.06 percentage points to 4.34 per cent while those on 30-year Treasuries dropped 0.08 percentage points to 4.79 per cent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

Japan’s broad Topix rose 1.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 2.4 per cent and Taiwan’s benchmark 4.3 per cent.

Investors said the president’s apparent U-turn on Powell proved there were at least some members of his inner circle who recognised that markets value the independence of America’s major institutions.

“This shows there are some guardrails around this president,” said Dec Mullarkey, managing director at fund manager SLC Management. “This feels like [Treasury secretary Scott] Bessent’s touch,” he added.

“Clearly other folks have talked to [Trump] and explained that [firing Powell] would have caused huge volatility. Bessent recognises that the integrity of markets has to be maintained.”

Powell has repeatedly said that he would serve his full term as Fed chair and believed that his early dismissal would not be allowed under US law. 

Investors’ concerns over his tenure rose after Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said on Friday that Trump would “continue to study” the matter of dismissing Powell.

Hassett, then chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, backed Powell after the Fed chair and Trump fell out during his first term as president.

Financial markets sold off on Monday after Trump attacked Powell as “Mr Too Late” in a post on his Truth Social platform, with the dollar falling to a three-year low against a basket of currencies and the S&P 500 index dropping 2.4 per cent.

US stocks and the dollar largely recouped their losses during regular trading on Tuesday after Bessent said the trade war with China was “unsustainable”. Trump also said he would strike a deal with China — something he has said repeatedly — and that tariffs would “come down substantially”.

The Fed has been on a collision course with Trump since shortly after he took office, but the attacks from the White House have intensified ever since the president launched his “reciprocal tariffs” on April 2. 

Rate-setters, including Powell, have made clear that they will postpone any interest rate cuts until they are confident that Trump’s trade policies will not lead to a persistent rise in inflation. 

The Fed chair and his colleagues have also made clear their concerns that Trump’s tariffs raise the prospect of lower growth and higher prices, weakening an economy that officials previously said was in good shape. 

Trump took to Truth Social last Thursday saying Powell’s termination “could not come fast enough” after the Fed chair confirmed the previous day that the central bank would not come to the stock markets’ rescue and cut rates to counter fears that the tariffs would drive the US economy into recession.

>>> US After Hours Summary: Trump has no intention to fire Powell, according to

After Hours Summary: Trump has no intention to fire Powell, according to multiple news reports; PEGA +23.6%, SAP +8.9%, MANH +8.2%, TSLA +3.7% higher on earnings; ENPH -11.4%, PKG -6.1% lower on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: PEGA +23.6%, SAP +8.9%, MANH +8.2% (also replenishes buyback authorization to $100 mln), CASH +5.4%, TSLA +3.7%, STLD +3%, VBTX +3% (also increases dividend), RRC +1.5%, COF +1% (also reports March card metrics), CB +0.5%, HAFC +0.4%, EQT +0.3% (also to acquire upstream and midstream assets of Olympus Energy for $1.8 bln), NBHC +0.1%, ASR +0.1%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: GOGL +2.6% (CMBT and GOGL to merge), MET +1.2% (increases dividend), TOI +1.1% (expands partnership with Helios), GRAL +0.9% (to present new data on Galleri), SOC +0.6% (files $1.5 bln mixed shelf securities offering), NEOG +0.6% (releases presentation materials primarily related to its Petrifilm product line), HL +0.4% (its Libby Exploration Project in Montana was included in Trump's March 18 announcement of advancing critical mineral projects), OTIS +0.1% (increases dividend)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: ENPH -11.4%, PKG -6.1%, WFRD -3.5% (also names new CFO), ISRG -1.8%, BKR -1.2%, ADC -0.5%, PFSI -0.2%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: OKLO -10.2% (Sam Altman to step down as Chairman), BMY -5.6% (topline results from Phase 3 ARISE Trial), SRAD -4.8% (announces launch of 23 mln share offering by selling shareholders and concurrent share repurchase; also guides Q1 revs above consensus), CMBT -2.8% (CMBT and GOGL to merge), PROP -1.8% (files $500 mln mixed shelf securities offering), MRNA -0.3% (Trump administration might cancel COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for kids, according to Politico), WNC -0.2% (strategic partnership with UP.Labs)

FT : Vladimir Putin offers to halt Ukraine invasion along current front line

Vladimir Putin offers to halt Ukraine invasion along current front line
US floats recognition of Russian annexation of Crimea as peace plan efforts continue

Vladimir Putin has offered to halt his invasion of Ukraine across the current front line as part of efforts to reach a peace deal with US President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Russian president told Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, during a meeting in St Petersburg earlier this month that Moscow could relinquish its claims to areas of four partly occupied Ukrainian regions that remain under Kyiv’s control, three of the people said.

The US has since floated ideas for a possible settlement that includes Washington recognising Russian ownership of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, the people added, as well as at least acknowledging the Kremlin’s de facto control over the parts of the four regions it currently holds.

The proposal is the first formal indication Putin has given since the war’s early months three years ago that Russia could step back from its maximalist demands to end the invasion.

But European officials briefed on US efforts to end the war cautioned that Putin would probably use the apparent concession as bait to lure Trump into accepting Russia’s other demands and forcing them on Ukraine as a fait accompli.

“There is a lot of pressure on Kyiv right now to give up on things so Trump can claim victory,” one of them said.

Ukrainian officials are due to meet European and US officials in London on Wednesday to discuss the latest proposals. However, Witkoff and US secretary of state Marco Rubio have pulled out of the meeting, according to US and European officials. Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is still expected to attend. Putin’s foreign policy adviser said on Tuesday that Witkoff would visit Moscow later this week, according to Russian newswires.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told the FT: “Tense work is under way. We are talking to the Americans. The work is difficult and takes a lot of time, so it is difficult to expect immediate results, and the work cannot be done in public.”

Trump posted on social media on Sunday that he hoped Ukraine and Russia would “make a deal this week” and then “start to do business with the United States of America, which is thriving, and make a fortune!”

The US floated ideas the White House hopes could form the outlines of a possible deal at a meeting in Paris last week with European and Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he had not received a proposal from Trump outlining specific steps towards ending Russia’s war. But he said that once a ceasefire was in place, he would be ready for direct talks with Putin.

“There are signals, ideas, discussions, but it isn’t an official proposition,” Zelenskyy said. If such an official proposition came, he said, “we will answer”.

Senior Ukrainian officials told the FT that they were amenable to some of the ideas floated by Trump and his team without specifying which in particular. The US proposals include deploying a European peacekeeping contingent in Ukraine as well as a separate, non-Nato military force to help monitor a ceasefire along a demilitarised zone spanning the entirety of the more than 1,000km frontline.

The force would work jointly with Ukrainian and Russian forces monitoring the armistice on their respective sides of the so-called line of contact.

Under a potential deal, Ukraine would pledge not to retake Russian-occupied territory by force, while Russia would agree to halt its army’s slow advance.

It is unclear whether Trump has asked Ukraine to formally recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea. But Zelenskyy reiterated his position on the Black Sea peninsula on Tuesday, saying that: “Ukraine will not recognise the occupation of Crimea. It’s our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine, there is nothing to discuss here.”

Russia has also rejected some of the US suggestions, including a military presence for Nato countries in Ukraine.

But people familiar with the matter said Putin would potentially be prepared to give ground on his previous demand for full control over the four frontline Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — if the US made broader geopolitical concessions to Moscow, such as recognising its control of Crimea and barring Ukraine from joining Nato.

Though Putin introduced constitutional amendments in 2020 barring Russia from relinquishing claims to any of its territory, Konstantin Remchukov, a Kremlin-aligned newspaper editor, claimed in a column published on Sunday that Moscow could end the fighting once it had driven Ukraine’s forces out of Kursk — a Russian region Kyiv partly took last year but which the Kremlin said on Saturday was now “99.5 per cent” under its control again.

“When they liberate the last half a per cent, then the troops can stop wherever they are when the news reaches them,” Remchukov wrote in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

“It is thought Trump understands this, thanks to Witkoff. And it is hoped this will all happen by April 30 so he can proudly declare that he got his peace mission done in the first 100 days of his presidency.”

Putin declared the annexation of the four south-eastern Ukrainian provinces at a lavish ceremony in the Kremlin in September 2022, even though Russia controlled none of them in full at the time. Russia still does not fully control any of the four regions, although it has held the regional capitals of Donetsk and Luhansk since its first covert invasion of eastern Ukraine with the use of local proxy forces in 2014.

Though Russia retreated from some of the territory it occupied in autumn of 2022, Putin said last year that he would not accept any peace deal unless Ukraine withdrew its troops from the front lines and gave Russia full control over the four provinces — including Zaporizhzhia city, a 700,000-strong industrial town that Russia has never held, but regularly attacks.

Previous Russian demands for a peace deal have included a pledge from Ukraine to remain neutral and abandon its Nato aspirations, recognition of Russian claims over annexed territories, Western sanctions relief and a reduction of Nato forces in member states close to Russia.

A State department spokesperson said they could not comment on the “substance of the negotiations”.

FT : Hedge fund Elliott turns up heat on BP with demand for deep spending cuts

Hedge fund Elliott turns up heat on BP with demand for deep spending cuts
US activist discloses 5% stake and warns pivot back to oil and gas does not go far enough

Elliott Management is pressing BP to increase its free cash flow by an additional 40 per cent through deep cuts to spending, as the activist investor upped its stake in the energy group to more than 5 per cent and sharpened its criticism of the company.

The US-based hedge fund has told BP that the “fundamental reset” outlined by the oil and gas group’s chief executive Murray Auchincloss in February does not go far enough and presented an alternative plan, according to people familiar with discussions.

Elliott is urging BP to shift its focus from growing its oil and gas business to prioritising a target of $20bn in annual free cash flow by 2027, according to people familiar with discussions. This represents a 40 per cent increase on the target implied in February when BP revealed its pivot away from renewables and a more than doubling of its “adjusted” free cash flow of $8bn last year.

“Murray has taken 18 months to come up with a three-year plan that’s neither ambitious nor urgent,” said a person familiar with Elliott’s thinking. “Time is not on BP’s side here, with the macroeconomic environment and with investor patience running out. The continued underperformance of BP makes it open to a takeover.”

BP announced on Tuesday that Elliott had increased its stake to just over 5 per cent, worth about £2.8bn, putting its shareholding on a par with Vanguard, the company’s second-biggest investor. BP shares have fallen by about 18 per cent since the new strategy was announced, reducing its market value to £57bn.

The hedge fund believes BP has a route back to a higher valuation if it can be more disciplined in its spending, reducing capital expenditure to $12bn a year rather than the $13bn to $15bn range set out by the company, the people said. Elliott also thinks BP could make $5bn of cost savings beyond its current target.

The activist also believes BP should sell its solar and offshore wind power businesses, and that there is room to cut spending across its oil and gas business because its future oil resources are sufficient. “In the oil and gas bit of the business, it is not about chasing growth, it is about being disciplined in investing,” said the person familiar with Elliott’s thinking.

Elliott has complained that management did not acknowledge the roots of the company’s problems, which go beyond the strategic pivot away from renewables, the people said.

“Management’s diagnosis was it was all about vibes and atmospherics. Elliott’s diagnosis is that it’s also about how poorly they have executed over the past few years, how they have let costs build up. It is an execution story,” a person familiar with Elliott’s view said. They added there was reason to believe there should be wider changes in BP’s personnel beyond the planned departure of Helge Lund, the chair.

A quarter of BP shareholders voted against Lund’s re-election at the company’s annual meeting last week, reflecting investor frustration at the underperformance.

Examples of its poor capital discipline at BP included the overspending at its Tortue LNG project in Senegal and the high costs that partner Devon Energy citied when it withdrew from a shale oil joint venture in the US, the people said. They also said excessive spending at BP’s $4bn US biogas business was risky given the fuel’s dependence on federal tax credits and uncertain market prospects.

BP and Elliott declined to comment.