Business
Heard on the Street Recap: Silver Scream
President Trump picked Kevin Warsh to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, choosing a former Fed official who has aligned himself with the president’s criticism of the central bank. Some market participants see Warsh as a relatively safe option, given his Fed experience and his track record as an inflation hawk. That could make him more resistant to calls from the administration to slash interest rates. President Trump said Warsh didn’t commit to cutting interest rates in an interview for the job, but he added “he certainly wants to cut rates.”
The announcement helped the dollar and hammered precious metals Friday. Silver prices crashed 31%, their second worst day on record. Gold plunged 11%. Both suffered their worst one-day slides since 1980. Silver has had a meteoric rise, smashing through a 45-year old record high in October and more than doubling from there. Earlier this month, Heard editor Aaron Back recommended selling silver.
Major U.S. indexes fell. The Nasdaq composite declined 0.9%, the S&P 500 and the Dow each fell 0.4%. Longer-term bond yields edged higher. Apple gained a meager 0.5% despite posting blowout iPhone sales and quarterly profit. Investors were concerned by rising costs, particularly for memory components.