NEW YORK, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended lower on Friday as investors evaluated U.S. President Donald Trump's nomination of former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as the next Fed chair.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 179.09 points, or 0.36 percent, to 48,892.47. The S&P 500 sank 29.98 points, or 0.43 percent, to 6,939.03. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 223.31 points, or 0.94 percent, to 23,461.82.
Seven of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors closed in negative territory, with materials and technology posting the steepest losses at 1.85 percent and 1.33 percent, respectively. Consumer staples and energy outperformed, rising 1.35 percent and 0.98 percent.
Markets reacted to Trump's announcement that he has selected Warsh, a former Fed governor known for his hawkish stance, to lead the U.S. central bank. While Warsh has historically favored tighter policy, he has recently expressed support for rate cuts, aligning with Trump's repeated calls for aggressive monetary easing.
"I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best," Trump wrote on social media.
Warsh has been critical of the Fed for being too activist and steering too far from its core mandate and for being myopic and too beholden to financial markets, noted Paul Sheard, economist and former vice chairman of S&P Global.
"Financial market participants will be keenly focused on whether Warsh will bend to President Trump's calls for Jay Powell's successor to cut interest rates and keep them low. The constitutional reality is that it makes little sense for a president to choose a Fed chair based on the level of interest rates they favor now," said Sheard.
Traders also digested the delayed December producer price index (PPI) report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which showed headline PPI rising 0.5 percent month-on-month and core PPI advancing 0.4 percent, both exceeding economist expectations of 0.3 percent gains.
In corporate news, Apple rose 0.46 percent following its expectation-beating quarterly earnings released Thursday. Other post-earnings movers included Deckers Outdoor surging 19.46 percent, Verizon climbing 11.83 percent, SanDisk gaining 6.85 percent, and Chevron adding 3.34 percent. Decliners included KLA Corp. falling 15.24 percent, Visa dropping 3 percent, and American Express declining 1.77 percent. Microsoft eased 0.74 percent after a 10 percent drop the prior session, while Meta slipped about 3 percent following a 10 percent advance on Thursday. ■