Federal Reserve keeps interest rates flat

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump tweeted that the U.S. economy has “the potential to go up like a rocket” if the Fed would only slash rates and resume what’s called quantitative easing—the emergency bond-buying programs the central bank launched after the Great Recession to stimulate spending and growth.

The Fed raised rates four times last year but more recently has indicated that it foresees no hikes at all this year. Despite Mr. Trump’s tweets, however, analysts don’t see the central bank lowering rates.

“Markets want the Fed to ease, but that makes sense only if you think core inflation is going to keep falling, which seems unlikely in the face of the gradual acceleration in wages,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note.