CNBC’s Jim Cramer said President Donald Trump “has lost interest in what’s happened in the stock market” as his public approval rating recently hit a a two-year high.
The latest shock, Cramer says, was Trump’s threat last week to place 5% tariffs on all Mexican goods, starting June 10, CNBC.com explained.
Cramer predicts “more capricious behavior” from Trump as the 2020 race for the White House heats up. “His poll numbers at at a two-year high, so he’s lost interest in what’s happened in the stock market,” Cramer said on CNBC.
According to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll, Trump’s approval rating hit 48%. The last time that survey showed a level that high was in June 2017.
“I don’t know where he’s going to strike next,” Cramer said. “We’re beginning a new era,” Cramer said on Monday. Trump believes he’s in a win-win situation for 2020 regardless of where the economy goes, Cramer said, stressing the importance of Friday’s May employment report.
Meanwhile, a Federal Reserve policymaker on Monday said that a rate cut may be needed “soon,” the strongest signal yet that the central bank may change course as trade tensions threaten the U.S. economy.
St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard’s remarks marked the first by a Fed official to suggest that a worsening trade war, as well as weak U.S. inflation, may soon require a central bank response, Reuters explained.
To date, and in the face of increasing disbelief by investors, Fed officials have said they saw no need to change rates from current 2.25%-2.50% levels even as some policymakers sketched out increasingly plausible scenarios where they might support a cut.
Investors are betting that the Fed will have to act soon. Traders on Monday pushed short-term interest rate futures contracts to levels that imply the Fed is likely to begin cutting as soon as next month.
The Nasdaq Composite spiked after Bullard’s comments but closed 1.61% lower for the day and confirmed it was in a correction.
Bullard told the Union League Club of Chicago that “a downward policy rate adjustment may be warranted soon,” citing inflation expectations that are “too low,” bond prices that seem to suggest rates are “inappropriately high,” and trade disputes that may be “more difficult to resolve than previously envisioned,” according to a summary of the presentation.
Talking with reporters after the speech, Bullard would not commit to a rate cut when the Fed meets in two weeks, saying he wants to hear other officials’ views. Bullard is one of 10 Fed officials who votes on rates this year.
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