President Donald Trump said he could force out Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, rebuking the notion that the U.S. central bank is independent, and vented frustration that monetary policymakers had not recently cut interest rates.

“If I ask him to, he’ll be out of there,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday when asked about an earlier social media post blasting the Fed chair as being too slow to lower rates. “I’m not happy with him. I let him know it.”

The president in the post said that “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” A Fed spokesperson had declined to comment on Trump’s earlier remark.

At the White House, Trump didn’t respond to a follow-up question from a reporter about whether he was trying to remove the central bank chief. He also said Powell, whom he nominated to take the Fed’s helm during his first term, has been “terrible.” There’s “essentially no inflation,” and if the Fed cut its benchmark, then borrowing costs would be lower also, he said.

Powell’s term as Fed chair runs into May 2026, and his term as a governor lasts until February 2028. Trump’s comments come a day after Powell, speaking in Chicago, reiterated that the Fed isn’t in a rush to cut rates and instead is awaiting greater clarity on the economy.

Judge dings Google in ruling

Google has been branded an abusive monopolist by a federal judge for the second time in less than a year, this time for illegally exploiting some of its online marketing technology to boost the profits fueling an internet empire currently worth $1.8 trillion.

The ruling issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia comes on the heels of a separate decision in August that concluded Google’s namesake search engine has been illegally leveraging its dominance to stifle competition and innovation.

After the U.S. Justice Department targeted Google’s ubiquitous search engine during President Donald Trump’s first term, the same agency went after the company’s lucrative digital advertising network in 2023 during President Joe Biden’s ensuing administration in an attempt to undercut the power that Google has amassed since its inception in a Silicon Valley garage in 1998.

Although antitrust regulators prevailed both times, the battle is likely to continue for several more years as Google tries to overturn the two monopoly decisions in appeals.

UnitedHealth cuts its 2025 forecast

UnitedHealth chopped its 2025 forecast after being surprised by rising care use from its Medicare Advantage customers in a worse-than-expected first quarter.

UnitedHealth said a jump in care use came in far above what the company planned for 2025 and became apparent as the quarter ended. The jump was particularly notable in doctor and outpatient services, which don’t involve overnight hospital stays.

The company’s UnitedHealthcare insurance business is the nation’s largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, with about 8.2 million people enrolled. Those plans are privately run versions of the federal government program mostly for people ages 65 and older.

The company also said Medicare Advantage funding cuts enacted by former President Joe Biden’s administration also hurt.

Shoppers go on pre-tariff spree

U.S. shoppers stepped up their shopping last month, fueled by a spending spree on big ticket items, particularly cars, before President Donald Trump’s expansive new tariffs started kicking in.

But analysts were quick to point out that the data wasn’t a sign of strength but underscored the extreme economic uncertainty that shoppers face and how they want to get ahead of higher prices.

Retail sales rose 1.4% in March, after rising 0.2% in February, according to the Commerce Department.

The number marked the highest percentage gain since January 2023, when it was 4.1%, according to FactSet.

Excluding sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers, sales rose 0.5% in March compared with the previous month.

Sales at motor vehicles and parts dealers rose 5.3%, and the report also underscored strength elsewhere.

Compiled from Bloomberg and Associated Press reports.