US stock markets whipsaw on Trump-Powell drama. The US dollar trades firmer while Asia Pacific stocks maintain bullish momentum. AUD plummets on soft jobs data.
Trump-Powell drama whipsawed US stocks, Asia shined, Aussie dollar torpedoed
US stocks and the FX market whipsawed on Wednesday, 16 July, as US President Trump once again upped his ante on firing the US Federal Reserve Chair Powell over his displeasure with the Fed’s refusal to lower interest rates at this juncture.
Several media reports mentioned yesterday that Trump had discussed in a closed-door meeting with congressional Republicans ways to fire Powell before his Fed chair’s term ends in May 2026. Later, Trump denied such a plan and said he only discussed it with lawmakers in “concept.”
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Trump’s potential dismissal of Fed Chair Jerome Powell would be unprecedented, as no U.S. President has formally removed a Federal Reserve Chair. Such an action would severely undermine the Fed’s independence, shaking investor confidence. U.S. stock indices initially sold off on the news, with the S&P 500 dropping 0.7% before rebounding to close the session with a modest gain of 0.3%.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 was the underperformer yesterday, with a meagre gain of 0.1% as ASML, a key player in the global semiconductor industry, lowered its 2026 growth outlook due to uncertainties over the US trade tariffs policy.
In today’s Asia session, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 E-mini futures are trading flat at the time of writing. In contrast, Asia Pacific stock markets remain buoyant, maintaining their bullish momentum.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index has continued to shine with an intraday gain of 0.5% to advance towards 4,155, on track for its ninth consecutive session of a fresh all-time high, supported by its stable dividend payouts from most of its component stocks.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 managed to reverse from yesterday’s losses as it staged a rebound of 0.5% from its 20-day moving average, acting as a key intermediate support at 39,145. This is a potential positive technical development ahead of Friday, 18 July’s key Japan inflation data release for June, where the consensus forecast expects a cool down to 3.3% y/y from May’s print of 3.7% y/y.
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After the overnight gyrations seen in the FX market induced by the Trump-Powell drama, the US dollar has continued to trade firmer against all the major currencies in today’s Asian session. The weakest was the Aussie dollar, where the AUD/USD plummeted by -0.7%, and broke below its 50-day moving average for the first time since 23 June, triggered by soft Australian job data for June; employment change (actual: 2K, May: -1.1K, consensus: 20K), unemployment rate (actual: 4.3%, May: 4.1%, consensus: 4.1%).
Our YouTube video above contains the latest intraday technical analysis on the latest intraday technical analysis on US Wall Street 30, US Nas 100, US SPX 500, Hong Kong 33, Japan 225, Germany 30, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/JPY, Gold (XAU/USD), and West Texas Oil.
