Trump Calls For Interest Rate Cuts As Markets Rally

President Donald Trump called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 1 percent and to implement a quantitative easing program that would boost the country's economy further.

The request came on the same day that the S&P 500 closed at another record high and capped its best four-month period in nearly nine years. Nevertheless, Trump was quick to tweet that if there was a looser monetary policy coming from the Fed, the U.S. economy would "go up like a rocket."

Trump and his top economic advisor Larry Kudlow have previously asked the Fed to cut rates by a half percent, citing the lack of inflation as a justification for the rate cut. Yesterday's request doubled their last demand.

Though analysts had just recently begun to predict that the bull market had finally run its course, recent market movements suggest that there may still be room to run. The S&P 500 closed up 0.10 percent on Tuesday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.15 percent. Only the NASDAQ closed lower, down 0.66 percent. Recent gains have been attributed to a stronger than expected earnings season as well as renewed optimism about the trade negotiations between the U.S. and China.

The S&P 500 gained 3.9 percent in April and the NASDAQ enjoyed a 4.9 percent gain for the month. The Dow rose 2.6 percent last month. All three indexes saw their highest monthly percentage gains since the start of 2019.

Asian markets were mixed on Wednesday, failing to gather steam from Wall Street's strong end to the month. Japanese markets remained closed for public holidays, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.65 percent as of 2:21 p.m. HK/SIN and South Korea's Kospi was down 0.58 percent. China's benchmark indexes remained higher, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.52 percent and the Shenzhen Composite up 0.68 percent.

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