CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Lower, Trump Picks Warsh For Fed Chair, Silver Plunges 20% 1/30/26

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

From Wall Street to Main Street, the latest on the markets and what it means for your money. Updated regularly on weekdays, featuring CNBC expert analysis and sound from top business newsmakers. Anchored and reported by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm Jessica Ehinger, CNBC, Wall Street with a sell-off this afternoon, but the major averages are on pace for a winning January on this last trading day of the month. The Dow falling 405 points being led lower by shares of American Express, down 3%. The S&P 500 indexed down 36 points. The NASDAQ falling 154 points. Shears of Nvidia flat this afternoon. Companies who shares have hit fresh all-time highs today in. include Honeywell, G.E. Vernova, Lamb Research, and Micron. If confirmed by lawmakers, Kevin Warsh, will be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, taking over from Jay Powell at the

end of his term this spring. He was almost appointed chair in Trump's first term, and now here he are. What he brings to the table, deep ties on Wall Street. He's been at the Fed before. He helped manage through the crisis with Ben Bernankees' chair. He is well known to Trump's circles, so the loyalty box gets checked tied to the wealthy Lauder family. He knows Trump. He galls. He's going to go in with the president's trust. That's Thompson Reuters Fed correspondent Howard Schneider on CNBC. CNBC's senior economics reporter Steve Leesman asked the Atlanta Fed president,

Raphael Bostic, about the choice. One of the abiding concerns throughout this whole process of looking for a Fed chair has been the independence of the Federal Reserve and actual facts. The president has challenged the independence of the Fed. criminal investigation against Powell, firing Lisa Cook. How much concern with this nomination would you have for the independence of the Federal Reserve? I think the independence of the Fed is always a concern and it's always something that we need to protect. And we'll just have to see how Mr. Warsh is in the role. Silver plunging 20 percent. Some investors think Fed independence is safe under Warsh and investors are selling out of Safe Haven assets. That had gone just so far up. You certainly saw a mania phase.

reached when trading on silver options surpass trading on NASDAQ options. I don't know that we've ever seen that in the past. When you have activity like that, it's an indicator of mania. New Edge wealths Rob Sechin on CNBC. Bitcoin backed down to where it was last Thanksgiving, around $81,000. Inflation rose at the wholesale level in December the most since September. When producers pay more for inputs, consumers can then have to pay more down the line. the Apple aftermath today shares lower even with fantastic quarterly results. Great earnings. What else you want to say? They had staggering iPhone demand. iPhone revenues were up 23% year-on-year-on-year new record high. Services revenue up 14% to a new record high. Sounds to me like a blowout quarter. And yet the stock's reaction is that. Why? Did I say the word AI? I didn't. There's no great AI story yet to tell.

NBC's Scott Wapner. It's the first weekend for the new Southwest Airlines, no longer low cost. Open seating is gone. It's charging for bags and seat location. The money's rolling in. Here's CNBC's Phil LeBoe with Southwest CEO Bob Jordan. The move to assigned seating, it just sets up terrific momentum for 2026. People will pay up a little bit for that, but also for baggage fees.

These are the kind of things that your competitors have been doing for some time. Because this is a change to the business model. offering them different products, and they can buy up. And obviously, you can buy a seat location. And we have fairs that have bag fees and no back fees. On the coming week's watch list, it's the busiest week of earnings season. We're going to hear from Amazon and Google Parent Alphabet. Monday is Groundhog Day.

And Super Bowl Week begins. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. CNBC Live ambitiously.