Friends

Today’s big market moving news was the President choosing Kevin Warsh to be the next Fed Chair. The Warsh choice was not a surprise, but the markets were still moved by it. Warsh has had a reputation of being a monetary hawk and yet the President has nominated him to administer dovish monetary policy. Markets reacted to the hawkish side of the equation with precious metals plummeting. Stocks were weak, but bonds were mainly firm in price. But I can’t imagine Mr. Warsh got the gig because he has the reputation of being hawkish. We know the President wants lower interest rates. I’m guessing, Mr. Warsh convinced the President he has a plan for that. Stay tuned.

As for the market averages, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 179 points to finish the day at 48,892. The S&P 500 was down 29 points to close at 6,939. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 223 points to close at 23,461. Gold was down $451 to trade at $4,866 per ounce, while oil was up $.47 to trade at $65.89 per barrel WTI.

On the earnings front, Apple had a tremendous quarter, but the shares did little. Perhaps it wasn’t the day to get applause from market participants about your earnings report. Nevertheless, Apple is doing just fine. It was a volatile week, and we still have some big earnings reports coming next week including Amazon and Google. We’ll marinate some ice cubes this weekend and get ready for what should be another interesting week for the markets.

Have a great weekend everyone.