All posts tagged: Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund

Pirro’s probe into the Fed’s Powell will be difficult to appeal

Pirro’s probe into the Fed’s Powell will be difficult to appeal

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris Pirro speaks during a press conference at the Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C., U.S., Aug. 12, 2025. Annabelle Gordon | Reuters Federal prosecutors in Washington are facing a decision that will help determine whether Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is swiftly replaced or lingers on while politicians fight over his replacement. If they do move ahead with a planned appeal against a recent adverse ruling, as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro insists they will, they risk having the investigation bogged down in complex, unsettled law, former federal prosecutors with experience in appellate law say.  “Regardless of the procedural vehicle they choose, the substantive road ahead of them is brutally steep,” said Sean P. Murphy, a former assistant U.S. attorney who has argued before the judge who ruled against Pirro’s probe of Powell and has briefed the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.  The Trump administration’s plans to quickly confirm former Fed official Kevin Warsh as Powell’s replacement are looking increasingly likely to …

Trump threatens tariffs of 50% on nations supplying weapons to Iran

Trump threatens tariffs of 50% on nations supplying weapons to Iran

Published by Sam Flores

US President Donald Trump looks on during a press conference about the conflict in Iran in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on April 6, 2026, in Washington, DC. Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images The U.S. will impose tariffs of 50% on “any and all” goods imported to the country from any nation “supplying military weapons to Iran”, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday. Trump said in a Truth Social post that any country found to be supplying Iran with weapons would be subject to the levy “immediately”, with no “exclusions or exemptions”. The president wrote: “A Country supplying Military Weapons to Iran will be immediately tariffed, on any and all goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately. There will be no exclusions or exemptions!” It came as Trump said the U.S. would “work closely” with Iranian authorities, following the ceasefire agreement announced on Tuesday and what Trump called “very productive regime change”. Trump said in a separate Truth Social post that “there will …

Warsh Fed nomination hearing set for mid-April

Warsh Fed nomination hearing set for mid-April

Published by Sam Flores

Kevin Warsh, former governor of the US Federal Reserve, during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring meetings at the IMF headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, April 25, 2025. Tierney L. Cross | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Senate Banking Committee will hold a nomination hearing on April 16 for Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. Warsh’s nomination is moving ahead even as a separate criminal probe into the Fed continues, setting up a potential clash between the two parallel processes set in motion by the Trump administration. Banking Committee member Sen. Thom Tillis, R.-N.C. has said he won’t vote to confirm Warsh until the probe is resolved. Yet President Donald Trump is eager to get Warsh confirmed. Tillis’s opposition means Trump can’t do both. But by moving ahead with the hearing, he is trying to anyway. The committee hasn’t yet put the hearing on its public schedule. Warsh and a spokesman for the Senate Banking Committee declined to …

Federal Reserve says keep Jerome Powell subpoenas quashed

Federal Reserve says keep Jerome Powell subpoenas quashed

Published by Sam Flores

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell participates in a board meeting at the Federal Reserve on March 19, 2026 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images The Federal Reserve Board of Governors urged a judge to reject prosecutors’ request that he reconsider his recent decision to block subpoenas issued in a criminal investigation of Chair Jerome Powell over pricey renovations of the Fed’s headquarters and his congressional testimony about that. The Fed’s lawyers, in a court filing unsealed Thursday, told Judge James Boasberg that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia failed to come even remotely close to meeting the legal threshold for its motion for reconsideration. “The Motion for Reconsideration … does not even mention — let alone meet — the demanding legal standard that applies to the extraordinary relief it seeks,” the Fed’s lawyers wrote in the motion in U.S. District Court in Washington. The attorneys said “reconsideration is warranted only” when there has been a change in the law related to the issues in the case, when there is new …

Trump signals DOJ should pursue Powell probe, complicating Warsh Fed nomination

Trump signals DOJ should pursue Powell probe, complicating Warsh Fed nomination

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump on Thursday signaled his continued support for a Department of Justice investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — a stance that could further delay the confirmation of Powell’s would-be successor, Kevin Warsh. “He’s under investigation because he’s building a building for hundreds of billions of dollars more than it’s supposed to cost,” Trump said of Powell in the Oval Office. He was referring to the ongoing renovation of the Fed’s headquarters and another building in Washington, the purported focus of the federal criminal probe of the central bank chairman led by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Trump repeatedly claimed that the construction projects cost up to $4 billion, though the actual total is roughly $2.5 billion. Powell has accused the government of launching the investigation in retaliation for his refusal to lower interest rates as much or as quickly as Trump has demanded. Powell “should be lowering rates immediately,” Trump said unprompted in his Oval Office remarks, “but he won’t do that because he’s a stubborn, incompetent person, and that’s a bad …

Fed Chair Powell complicating Warsh’s plans for swift rate cuts

Fed Chair Powell complicating Warsh’s plans for swift rate cuts

Published by Sam Flores

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, March 18, 2026. Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh wants to lower interest rates. Fed officials signaled Wednesday that it may be even harder than expected for him to make that happen, should he be confirmed into that job any time soon. Fed officials raised their predictions for the path of inflation and interest rates in data the central bank released Wednesday. That was largely expected given the spike in oil prices due to the Iran war. But Chair Jerome Powell said oil wasn’t the only factor his colleagues were considering. Higher forecasts for inflation are also “a reflection of the slow progress we’ve seen on tariffs,” Powell said. The Fed publishes a survey of its top officials’ expectations for interest rates and the economy in a document known as the Summary of Economic Projections. The SEP released Wednesday showed the median official’s …

Powell says he will stay on as head of the Fed until Warsh is confirmed

Powell says he will stay on as head of the Fed until Warsh is confirmed

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 18, 2026. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says he will keep serving as head of the central bank if his nominated successor, Kevin Warsh, is not confirmed by the time his term is up in May, as dictated by the law. Separately, Powell said he will not leave his Board of Governors position, which technically extends until early 2028, until the Department of Justice investigation of him is “well and truly over with transparency and finality.” Powell said during his Wednesday press conference that he would serve as “chair pro tem” if Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to take over the role, has not been greenlighted by the Senate. That follows precent done in several past scenarios, Powell said. The Fed chief’s position on the Board of Governors is separate from his chairmanship. Powell said he wouldn’t exit the board until …

Fed subpoenas blocked by judge; DOJ to appeal

Fed subpoenas blocked by judge; DOJ to appeal

Published by Sam Flores

A federal judge in a scathing ruling blocked subpoenas issued by a grand jury to the Federal Reserve as part of a criminal investigation of Chair Jerome Powell. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro immediately said that the Department of Justice would appeal what she called the “outrageous” ruling, after it was unsealed Friday. Friday’s action will likely keep Powell in the chairman’s seat longer because Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has vowed to block Kevin Warsh’s confirmation to succeed Powell until the federal investigation ends. That may mean interest rates remain higher than President Donald Trump wants for longer because Powell has refused to bend to the president’s demands to lower them further. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, in his ruling, said evidence showed Pirro was motivated to investigate Powell because of a desire to get the Fed chief to bow to Trump and cut interest rates quickly and broadly. Pirro’s investigation purportedly is focused on the Fed’s multibillion-dollar renovation of its headquarters in Washington and on Powell’s testimony to the Senate …

Fed chair pick Kevin Warsh meets with more senators

Fed chair pick Kevin Warsh meets with more senators

Published by Sam Flores

Federal Reserve chairman nominee Kevin Warsh’s chances of getting quickly confirmed by the Senate looked as gloomy as the weather in Washington on Thursday as he met with more senators in a bid to bolster his chances. “It doesn’t look like such a nice day today,” Warsh quipped to a CNBC reporter in the Hart Senate Office Building, as heavy rain poured outside, on his way to a chat with Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D. “Things are progressing well, good to see you,” Warsh said when asked how the meetings were going. Rounds, after the meeting, posted on X that Warsh “will help keep the central bank accountable and focused on its statutory mission.” Warsh’s nomination by President Donald Trump is bogged down because of an effective blockade imposed by Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who sits on the Banking Committee. That panel is the first hurdle for would-be Fed board members such as Warsh. Read more CNBC politics coverage Tillis has vowed to vote against passing along Warsh’s nomination or any other Fed …

Trump Section 301 trade probes to replace IEEPA tariffs

Trump Section 301 trade probes to replace IEEPA tariffs

Published by Sam Flores

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 11, 2026. Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images The Trump administration on Wednesday announced new trade investigations of China, Mexico, the European Union and more than a dozen other economies, with the goal of replacing President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which were recently ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. The probes, which will likely expand to more nations, will be conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters during a call. That law permits the U.S. to impose tariffs on imported goods from other nations found to have engaged in unfair trade practices. Section 301 tariffs could replace at least some of the reciprocal tariffs on most of the world’s nations that Trump imposed on them last year without congressional authorization.  “The president’s trade policy remains the same,” Greer said. “Protect American jobs and to make sure we …