{"id":50581,"date":"2025-07-16T11:08:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/trump-inquires-about-removing-fed-chair-powell-eu-unveils-major-budget-oil-futures-drop-on-inventory-surge\/50581\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T11:08:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:08:41","slug":"trump-inquires-about-removing-fed-chair-powell-eu-unveils-major-budget-oil-futures-drop-on-inventory-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/trump-inquires-about-removing-fed-chair-powell-eu-unveils-major-budget-oil-futures-drop-on-inventory-surge\/50581\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Inquires About Removing Fed Chair Powell; EU Unveils Major Budget; Oil Futures Drop on Inventory Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Key Takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Former President Donald <a href=\"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/live\/trump-stock-market\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Trump\">Trump<\/a> has reportedly inquired with Republican lawmakers about the possibility of removing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, signaling potential instability in monetary policy.<\/li>\n<li>The European Union has unveiled a new budget proposal for 2028-2034, featuring a <strong>\u20ac400 billion crisis fund<\/strong> and significant allocations for Ukraine, defense, climate, and competitiveness.<\/li>\n<li>U.S. crude and fuel futures experienced declines following an <strong>unexpected increase in gasoline and distillate stocks<\/strong>, as reported by the EIA.<\/li>\n<li>S&amp;P has <strong>downgraded Nike (<a href=\"\/stock\/NKE\">NKE<\/a>)<\/strong> from &#39;AA-&#39; to &#39;A+&#39; due to reduced profitability and ongoing tariff risks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Donald <a href=\"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/live\/trump-stock-market\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Trump\">Trump<\/a> has reportedly asked Republican lawmakers about the feasibility of dismissing Federal Reserve Chair <strong>Jerome Powell<\/strong>, with some in the room voicing approval. Sources indicate that Trump suggested he might proceed with the removal, which, if pursued, would mark a significant challenge to the Fed&#39;s traditional independence and could introduce considerable market uncertainty. Powell&#39;s term as Fed chair is set to end on May 15, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>In Europe, EU Commission President <strong>Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> has announced a comprehensive new budget proposal for the 2028-2034 period, which she termed a &quot;budget for a new era.&quot; The plan includes a substantial <strong>\u20ac400 billion crisis fund<\/strong> and earmarks <strong>\u20ac100 billion<\/strong> for supporting Ukraine. The budget also emphasizes a five-fold increase in defense spending, a focus on climate and biodiversity with <strong>35%<\/strong> of new budget allocation, and a doubling of the Horizon Europe research fund to support future key technologies. The overall proposed budget could reach <strong>\u20ac1.717 trillion<\/strong>, representing an increase to <strong>1.23%<\/strong> of the EU&#39;s gross national income from the current <strong>1.1%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the energy market reacted to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). U.S. gasoline futures and heating oil futures dropped after the EIA reported an <strong>unexpected increase in gasoline stocks by 3.399 million barrels<\/strong> and U.S. distillate inventories by <strong>4.173 million barrels<\/strong> week-over-week. This rise in fuel stocks contributed to a decline in both U.S. and Brent crude futures prices, despite a reported <strong>decrease of 3.859 million barrels in overall U.S. crude oil inventories<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>White House Economic Advisor <strong>Kevin Hassett<\/strong> has reiterated his criticism of the Federal Reserve, stating that the central bank has been &quot;very, very slow&quot; in its actions. Hassett asserted that inflation data is &quot;okay and not concerning,&quot; suggesting that the Fed should return to an &quot;appropriate rate path.&quot; His comments come amidst ongoing debate regarding the Fed&#39;s monetary policy and its responsiveness to economic conditions.<\/p>\n<p>In corporate news, S&amp;P has downgraded <strong>Nike Inc. (<a href=\"\/stock\/NKE\">NKE<\/a>)<\/strong> to &#39;A+&#39; from &#39;AA-&#39;. The downgrade is attributed to reduced profitability and persistent tariff risks faced by the sportswear giant. Nike anticipates a <strong>$1 billion impact<\/strong> from new tariffs, with plans to mitigate this through supply chain optimization, phased price increases, and cost reductions. The company&#39;s gross margin has seen a significant decline, falling <strong>440 basis points to 40.3%<\/strong> in Q4 2025, largely due to U.S. tariffs on imports from Vietnam (<strong>46%<\/strong>) and China (<strong>34%<\/strong>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways: Former President Donald Trump has reportedly inquired with Republican lawmakers about the possibility of removing Federal Reserve Chair [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[5670,1947,3710,4221,4335,4821,5030,5656,5668,5669],"class_list":["post-50581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-eia","tag-oil","tag-federal-reserve","tag-jerome-powell","tag-donald-trump","tag-economic-policy","tag-energy","tag-eu-budget","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-nike-nke-stock-nke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}