UPDATE 1-Trump urges Fed to lower U.S. interest rates

President Donald Trump said on Friday the U.S. Federal Reserve should lower interest rates, noting that newly released jobs numbers showed the economy had performed well but adding that action by the central bank had really slowed down the economy. The Fed raised interest rates four times last year, and Trump has been a vocal and strident critic of the rate hikes under Jerome Powell, whom the president picked two years ago to chair the U.S. central bank. Trump's other Fed appointees have also supported the rate hikes.

On Thursday, Trump said he plans to nominate his political ally Herman Cain, the former head of Godfather's Pizza, to one of two vacancies on the Fed's seven-member Board of Governors. Two weeks ago, Trump said he would nominate conservative economic commentator Stephen Moore to the other vacant seat on the Fed's board. Moore is also a longtime Trump ally who has joined him in criticizing last year's rate hikes.