A television station broadcasts Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, speaking after a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Opposition to the Trump administration’s criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is gaining momentum.
On Sunday evening stateside, Powell said federal prosecutors are investigating him over the central bank’s $2.5 billion renovation of its headquarters, and his related testimony before Congress.
Powell suggested the probe reflects President Donald Trump’s frustration with the Fed’s refusal to lower rates as aggressively as he has demanded.
The investigation quickly triggered a wave of bipartisan criticism.
“The reported criminal inquiry into Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell is an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine that independence,” a statement said Monday. It was signed by former Fed chairs, economists and other senior officials who served in previous Democratic and Republican administrations.
Some Republican lawmakers also pushed back, with North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis saying he would block any Trump appointees to the Fed.
Lloyd Blankfein, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, went further, describing the criminal investigation as “an attempt at murder-suicide” of multiple U.S. institutions.
Despite the uproar, U.S. markets climbed, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average even closing at new highs.
Former Fed Chair and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she was “surprised the market isn’t more concerned.” It’s a situation that is “extremely chilling,” she added.
But Jim Lebenthal, chief markets strategist at Cerity Partners, told CNBC that there’s just “too many good things” in the short term for investors to focus on, such as a healthy economy and earnings.
That does not mean the path ahead for markets is clear. Trump announced Monday that any country doing business with Iran would face a 25% tariff.
Though China was not mentioned in his post on Truth Social, the country is Iran’s biggest trading partner. The new tariffs, in other words, could complicate the uneasy trade truce between Beijing and Washington, or even spark retaliation from China, analysts say.
If the pace of developments in recent weeks is any indication, investors may need to brace for more obstacles in the coming days.
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan, Jeff Cox and Yun Li contributed to this report.
What you need to know today
And finally…
Hedge funds had their best year since 2009. These 2 strategies drove the biggest returns
The global hedge fund industry delivered a 12.6% annual return last year across all strategy types, its biggest since the Global Financial Crisis.
The returns were driven mainly by stock-picking strategies that bet long and short on equity markets, as well as macro managers that use stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies to trade big-picture macroeconomic themes.
Both these strategies were up more than 17% for the year, according to new data published by industry tracker Hedge Fund Research.
— Hugh Leask
