THE FED, THE "ONLY PROBLEM" OF THE US ECONOMY ACCORDING TO TRUMP

Donald Trump has again taken Monday to the US Federal Reserve, he continues to blame for its policy of raising interest rates.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump has again taken Monday to the US Federal Reserve, which he continues to blame for its policy of raising interest rates.

"The only problem our economy has is the Fed, it does not smell the market!" wrote the president of the United States on his Twitter account. "The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can not score because he has no touch, he does not know how to do a putt!"

According to the Bloomberg news agency, Donald Trump has spoken in recent days about the possibility of dismissing Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he himself named. The information was denied by the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin but it helped to weigh on the stock indexes.

In an interview given ten days ago to Reuters, Donald Trump considered "ridiculous" the rate hike that complicates the financing of deficits caused by the fiscal and economic policy of his administration.

Jerome Powell, appointed by Trump in November 2017, succeeded Janet Yellen as head of the Fed last February. It has continued the policy of gradual increase in rates implemented since the end of 2015.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin organized a conference call with financial market regulators and the chair of the Financial Markets Task Force, which is only convened in the event of high volatility in the markets.

Regulators said they did not notice anything unusual about the markets, an informed source said. They also discussed how to continue essential operations during the partial shutdown period of the federal administration.

Mnuchin also called on major US banks Sunday to have assurances that they were still able to secure loans, the Treasury Department said.

(Jason Lange, Jean-Stéphane Brosse for French service, edited by Wilfrid Exbrayat)