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(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday launched a series of attacks against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, accusing the central bank chief of "playing politics" by not cutting interest rates, asserting he had the power to evict Powell from his job "real fast," and looking forward to the day when Powell was gone. Powell's termination as Fed chair "cannot come fast enough", the president said in morning comments posted to social media. Trump's post also said the Fed should be cutting interest rates and called a recent Powell speech about the economy a "complete mess."

An aggressive U.S. tariff policy will trigger a significant slowdown in the U.S. economy this year and next, with the median probability of recession in the next 12 months approaching 50%, according to economists polled by Reuters. A sudden 90-day pause in reciprocal tariffs on trading partners imposed by President Donald Trump hasn't done much to improve the U.S. outlook given a trade war with its biggest trading partner, China, is escalating and damaging business sentiment. Most forecasters, like U.S. consumers in recent months, have significantly raised their inflation expectations.

Investors are left to wrestle with backward-looking figures that haven't captured the present and unpleasant surveys that anticipate a dismal future.

Already facing a new rival theme park in Orlando, Fla., Disney must now contend with a more difficult economic environment that could dampen attendance.

The year started well but worsened from March due to economic turmoil linked to tariffs, the head of French luxury group LVMH said on Thursday. Bernard Arnault also told the annual shareholders meeting that LVMH will focus on growth at the highest ends of its product range as less wealthy aspirational buyers will be more vulnerable to rising inflation and interest rates.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expressed concern over achieving the central bank’s dual mandate as tariffs are likely to drive inflation higher while weakening economic growth. His comments added further pressure on US stock markets and the US dollar on Wednesday.View on euronews

On the rooftop patio of the General Services Administration headquarters, an agency staffer recently discovered something strange: a rectangular device attached to a wire that snaked across the roof, over the ledge and into the administrator’s window one floor below. It didn’t take long for the employee — an IT specialist — to figure out the device was a transceiver that communicates with Elon Musk’s vast and private Starlink satellite network. The Starlink equipment raises a host of questions about what Musk and his efficiency czars are doing at GSA, an obscure agency that is playing an outsized role in the Trump administration’s quest to slash costs and bring the federal government to heel.