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- The Federal Reserve’s first rate hike since 2023 sparks a critical response from President Trump.
- Double Line’s Jeff Gundlach tells CNBC the Fed should have gone for the “stun and done” approach.
- On Thursday, the Bank of England looks set to hold rates steady despite inflation concerns.
- The European Union is in the crosshairs after President Trump calls their Canada invitation a “hostile act.”
- Oil prices give up some gains, while stocks futures in the U.S. and Europe point higher.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the press as he arrives at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, while he travels to attend a campaign rally supporting Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., Sept. 16, 2026. Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Hello, this is Leonie Kidd coming to you from London. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
The word of the day — hostile.
President Trump has used it to describe both the Federal Reserve board and the EU’s move to name Canada as an “associate member” of the bloc.
After a knee-jerk reaction to the downside, stocks stateside look set to recover some of those losses on Thursday, with a broadly positive handover from global equities.
Read on for more.
What you need to know today
The Federal Reserve delivered a hawkish hike on Wednesday, but Chair Kevin Warsh still seems to be sending dovish signals to U.S. President Donald Trump.
The central bank raised rates by 25 basis points in the first hike since 2023.
But Trump’s comments following the announcement raised further questions about Fed independence.
“I’m relying on Kevin, but he’s got, you know, a very tough board, he’s got a board that was put there by other people,” Trump said. “And I told, I talked to Kevin, and I said, ‘You might as well vote with the board. It’s not going to matter.’”
Trump called the other Fed governors “very hostile, very political.”
Not one and done
In the press conference following the decision, Warsh said inflation was still too high, indicating the central bank could consider further hikes later this year.
Bond investing titan Jeff Gundlach told CNBC the Fed should have gone further this meeting, with a “stun and done” approach to hikes. You can watch that full interview here.
Up next: BOE and BOJ
On Thursday, attention turns to the Bank of England, which is widely expected to leave rates unchanged at 3.75%. Governor Andrew Bailey has warned inflation risks remain “on the upside.”
Meanwhile, Japan’s short-dated government bond yields have hit their highest level since 1995 ahead of an expected hike from the Bank of Japan on Friday.
Blame Canada
President Trump has branded the European Union’s invitation to Canada to become an Associate Member a “hostile act.” On Wednesday, he threatened to impose further tariffs on Europe or halt trade with the bloc entirely.
“I think it’s laughable … Canada has been a terrible trade partner,” Trump told reporters after landing in North Carolina. He warned European leaders that “if I think it’s at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things.”
Oil oscillations
Oil prices fell in early trading on Thursday after Saudi Arabia said it was making additional crude cargoes available to Asian refiners in an attempt to ease the supply crunch.
Meanwhile, stock futures are pointing to a positive open in the U.S. and Europe, following a broad rally in Asia. That could help recoup some of the losses from Wednesday’s session, which saw the Dow close over 600 points lower.
— Leonie Kidd
And Finally…
Putin braces for election stress test as Russians ‘feel the pain’ of struggling economy
Russian President Vladimir Putin is bracing for a wartime reckoning as the Kremlin prepares to hold its first parliamentary election since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
The tightly controlled vote, which takes place over a three-day period from Friday to Sunday, is widely expected to shore up the dominance of the ruling United Russia party in the 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament.
While the result is not in doubt, external observers will be paying close attention to voter turnout and the margin of United Russia’s victory for any signs of public discontent after more than four-and-a-half years of war.
— Sam Meredith, Anniek Bao
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