Institutional investors are STILL selling to retail: Institutional Investors sold -$800 million in single stocks and ETFs last week, building on -$2.4 billion in the previous week. This marks their 10th week of selling out of the last 11. Over the last 4 weeks, institutional investors have sold -$8.5 billion in equities in total. On the other hand, corporations bought back +$1.2 billion of their own stock, while retail and hedge funds purchased +$1.2 billion and +$400 million, respectively. Retail investors have now been net buyers for 30 out of the last 32 weeks. Wall Street vs Main Street continues.

Trump has not attacked Powell on Truth Social since Sunday. I was getting worried Trump was sick or something. All is normal! Six minutes ago.

Trump has a field trip scheduled this week. * WHITE HOUSE VISIT TO FED HQ PLANNED FOR THURSDAY: OFFICIAL

Consider that Powell could stay on as Governor after his term as Chairman ends in May 2026, as his term as Governor does not end until January 2028. He would be "blocking" Trump from getting another opportunity to nominate someone dedicated to cutting rates until early 2028. Fed Governor terms are 14 years, so one expires every two years (see the graphic). Adriana Kugler's term ends in January 2026. This is the spot that Trump will use to nominate Powell's successor. It would not be unprecedented. Marriner Eccles finished his chairmanship in January 1948 and remained a governor until 1951. --- A possible scenario ... Suppose the Republicans lose the Senate in November 2026 and no other Federal Reserve governor leaves before January 2027. In that case, Trump will only get this one Fed appointment to replace Powell as Chairman for the rest of his second term. (Powell, or any other governor, leaving after the Democrats take control of the Senate in January 2027, probably means no nominee Trump puts forth will be confirmed.)

Household and daily items leading the way. Is this stuff imported and subject to tariffs?

Goldman: "Market participants seem to agree that the risk to Fed independence is rising, as 5-year 5-year forward inflation swaps have recently decoupled higher from their prior close relationship with the 2-year note yield."

Jeffrey Sherman, deputy chief investment officer at DoubleLine, says the US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell shouldn't cut rates today

The last time the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high was 1 trading day ago ... the last time the Russell 2000 closed at an all-time high was 925 trading days ago. Longest streak on record where the Russell 2000 has not joined the S&P 500 in seeing a record high.

.@SecScottBessent: "What we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful... All of these Ph.D.s over there, I don't know what they do... This is like Universal Basic Income for academic economists."

The president issued a response. “People don’t explain to me, I explain to them!”