U.S. stocks opened higher Wednesday after President Donald Trump signaled a softer stance toward the eye-watering tariffs he had set for China, while also stating he would not make an immediate change in leadership at the Federal Reserve.

Investors were also cheered by Elon Musk's imminent return to a more full-time focus on Tesla, dialing back his controversial stint as a Trump White House adviser to one to two days a week.

President Donald Trump’s significant policy changes, including on tariffs, are unlike anything seen in modern history, putting the Federal Reserve in uncharted waters, Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday.

“These are very fundamental policy changes,” Powell said at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Chicago. “There isn’t a modern experience of how to think about this.”

President Trump's tariffs, and the foreign retaliation these have resulted in, could cost U.S. households nearly $5,000, according to a recent report.

In its latest trade policy update, released Tuesday, the Budget Lab at Yale estimated that the tariffs currently in place will result in three-percent price increases in the short-term, equivalent to a per-household cost of $4,900.

President Trump is signaling that he will blame the Federal Reserve for any economic weakness that results from his trade war if the central bank doesn’t cut interest rates soon.

In the process, he might also be seeking to delegitimize the historically independent institution in a way that could undermine its effectiveness.

President Trump’s ramped-up attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have Washington Republicans bracing for a confrontation that could make the turmoil in the financial markets much worse and put the Fed’s independence and credibility in jeopardy.

Republican aides and strategists say GOP lawmakers are highly anxious about Trump’s tariff strategy and fear that he will send more waves through the financial markets by threatening to interfere in the central bank’s domain of setting monetary policy.

President Donald Trump renewed his call for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, saying Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s “termination cannot come fast enough.”

In a Truth Social post on April 17, Trump urged the Federal Reserve to emulate the European Central Bank (ECB) and follow through on rate cuts as prices are down and “the USA is getting rich on tariffs.”

President Trump lashed out at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in a post on social media Thursday that hinted at potentially dismissing the central bank leader, one day after Powell warned that the Fed could face a difficult trade-off as tariffs raise prices and weaken the economy.

“Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” the post read. Trump said Powell “is always TOO LATE AND WRONG” and should be cutting interest rates alongside other central banks.

President Donald Trump on Thursday sharply criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, urging the central bank to lower interest rates and saying Powell’s “termination cannot come soon enough.”

It was not clear whether Trump’s comments indicated a desire to remove Powell from his position or an eagerness for the completion of Powell’s term as Fed chair in 2026. The Fed is an independent government agency established by Congress.

Donald Trump says end of Jerome Powell's term as Fed chair 'cannot come fast enough'

Donald Trump is awake. And he has strongly criticised monetary policy by the Federal Reserve, saying the end of Jerome Powell’s tenure as chair “cannot come fast enough”.

In a post on Truth Social, the social network he owns, Trump said that Powell had been too slow to cut interest rates – contrasting its hesistance because of perceived inflationary pressures with the European Central Bank (ECB).

When it comes to the crucial task of gauging the impact of tariffs on inflation, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has a game plan: Separate the signal from the noise.

The sheer scale and scope of President Donald Trump’s sweeping global levies has made the already difficult task more challenging — and more consequential.