Futures fell on Wall Street Friday as word leaked that President Donald Trump would nominate former Federal Reserve official Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the U.S. central bank.
Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were each 0.5% lower before the opening bell. Nasdaq futures were down 0.6%.
The U.S. dollar also stabilized overnight and precious metals, which had been soaring past records almost daily, saw a big sell-off. Gold dipped 3.9% to $5,144 an ounce, while silver tumbled under $100 an ounce after falling 13%.
That sent shares in big miners down, led by Hecla, which slid 12%. Newmont lost 8% and Freeport McMoRan retreated 5.9% in the early going.
Prices for precious metals have been surging as investors look for safer investments while weighing a wide range of risks, including a U.S. stock market that critics say is expensive, political instability, threats of tariffs and heavy debt loads for governments worldwide.
The U.S. dollar has seen its value sink over the last year because of many of the same risks that drove gold’s price higher. Early Friday, the dollar was trading at 154 Japanese yen, up from 153.09 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1923 from $1.1971.
Warsh is viewed as a somewhat unlikely choice by Trump because he has long been considered a “hawk": someone who typically supports higher interest rates to control inflation. Trump has said the Fed’s key rate should be as low as 1%, far below its current level of about 3.6%, a stance few economists endorse.
Warsh would replace current chair Jerome Powell when his term expires in May. Trump picked Powell to lead the Fed in 2017 but has been relentlessly assailed him for not cutting interest rates quickly enough.
The appointment, which requires Senate confirmation, amounts to a return trip for Warsh, 55, who was a member of the Fed’s board from 2006 to 2011.
In other equities trading, Sandisk climbed 23% before the opening bell after the data storage company trounced Wall Street's second-quarter sales and profit targets. Sandisk, which saw its data center revenue soar 64% from the first quarter, credited the strong results to customers' adoption and deployment of AI.
At midday in Europe, Germany's DAX picked up 0.8%, while the CAC 40 in Paris advanced 0.9%. Britain's FTSE 100 was 0.5% higher.
Elsewhere, The CEO of Indonesia's stock market, Imam Rachman, resigned Friday “As part of a commitment toward recent market conditions,” the exchange said in an announcement.
Jakarta's benchmark gained 1.2% following news of his resignation. It had been trading at all-time highs but sank 7.4% on Wednesday and 1.1% on Thursday after MSCI, a U.S. provider of global equity, fixed income and real estate indices, warned about market risks such as a lack of transparency.
Chinese markets retreated, with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong shedding 2.1% to 27,387.11. Shares in major ports operator CK Hutchison Holdings dropped 4.6% after Panama’s Supreme Court ruled that the concession held by a subsidiary to operate ports at either end of the Panama Canal was unconstitutional.
That advanced a U.S. effort to block any influence by China over the strategic waterway.
The Shanghai Composite index slipped 1% to 4,117.95.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell back, losing 0.1% to 53,322.85 as stocks related to artificial intelligence declined. Testing equipment maker Advantest lost 4.5% and computer chip equipment maker Disco Corp. lost 1.7%.
South Korea's Kospi gave up most of its gains late in the session, edging just 0.1% higher to 5,224.36 after the Yonhap News Agency reported that a first day of talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick aimed at resolving trade tensions had not yielded an agreement. The talks are due to continue Friday.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said he planned to raise tariffs on South Korean exports if the U.S. ally did not swiftly ratify a trade agreement worked out months ago.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.7% to 8,869.10.
Taiwan's benchmark lost 1.5%, while India's Sensex fell 0.3%.
Oil prices slipped after jumping more than 3% on Thursday due to worries about tensions between the United States and Iran, which could ultimately constrict the flow of crude. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned the U.S. military “will be prepared to deliver whatever the president expects,” just a day after President Donald Trump told Iran to “make a deal” on its nuclear program.
U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 32 cents to $65.10 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 40 cents to $69.19 per barrel.
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