U.S. President Donald Trump wrote Fed Chair Jerome Powell urging him to lower interest rates, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday. Leavitt, at a briefing, displayed a copy of Trump's handwritten notes to Powell on a piece of paper showing the interest rates charged by more than two dozen countries.

After the widespread uncertainty caused by the tariff policy, Powell said the Fed decided the "prudent thing to do is to wait."