Dow Jones tanks as Fed chairman raises doubts on further rate cuts

Wall Street got what it wanted from the Federal Reserve — just not enough of it.

The stock market plunged Wednesday despite the Fed announcing its first interest rate cut in a decade, as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that the quarter-point cut was an “adjustment” and not the beginning of a “lengthy cutting cycle.”

Powell’s remarks were enough to send the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 400 points in afternoon trades as Fed watchers fretted that the punch bowl wasn’t getting many more free refills.

Amid a barrage of questions from reporters about his stock-tanking soundbites, Powell later scrambled to clarify his comments.

“Let me be clear. I said it’s not the beginning of a long series of rate cuts. I didn’t say it’s just one or anything like that,” Powell told reporters during a press conference at the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting.

The Dow recovered to end the day at 26,864.27, down 330.75 points. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were off 1.1% and 1.2%, respectively.

“Powell’s comment that this rate cut is a ‘mid-cycle adjustment’ was not dovish enough for a market that thinks there will be two more rate cuts this year,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, told The Post in an email.

In addition to Wednesday’s cut, the Fed also said it’s halting its balance sheet reduction — two months earlier than planned.

The Fed cited “uncertainties” in the global economy and “muted inflation pressures” as reasons for the cut, while noting that US economic activity has been rising at a “moderate rate.”

Pressure to cut interest rates has been mounting over the last several months with President Trump lambasting the Fed for raising rates too aggressively in 2018.

“The Fed moved, in my opinion, far too early and far too severely,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, adding that he would like to see a “large cut” at the conclusion of the FOMC meeting.

“I think I would have been 10,000 points higher and I think we would have been in the fours with GDP,” Trump said, referring to the Dow and most recent read of GDP, which stands at 2.1%.