Trump Tells Davos He Will Demand Lower Interest Rates and Oil Prices

• U.S. President Donald Trump demanded OPEC lower oil prices and the world drop interest rates in a speech to global business and political leaders and warned them they will face tariffs if they make their products anywhere but the U.S. "I'll demand that interest rates drop immediately. And likewise, they should be dropping all over the world," Trump said via video to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. "I'm also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil."
• The remarks, Trump's first to global leaders in his four-day-old presidency, bolster the message that his second term will eschew free market norms inside the U.S. and out. Despite robust comments on the tariffs he wants to put in place, he did not provide specifics at a time when markets are on edge over his plans.
• Oil prices turned negative as Trump spoke, while the euro dipped, and the U.S. dollar swung between gains and losses against a basket of foreign currencies. The S&P 500 benchmark of U.S. stocks rose to a near-all-time high. Trump spoke to about 3,000 Davos attendees, who cheered as Trump's face appeared on the big screen. The president, a businessman whose first elected office was the White House, listed the rapid-fire changes he had made since his swearing-in on Monday that have upended U.S. government policies on diversity, climate change and immigration.
• In a subsequent conversation with conference attendees including Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, the U.S. president's remarks veered between compliments and criticism.
• Trump's address was an unusual moment, affording a handful of business executives an opportunity to publicly question the U.S. president on issues that affect their businesses, or in some cases their specific investments, projects and interests.

(Source: Reuters)