Closing Bell: A choppy Friday puts stocks in the red for the week.

Key Points

• U.S. Stocks ended Friday slightly lower and posted a losing week as traders weighed the latest comments made by President Donald Trump related to the Federal Reserve and geopolitics.
• The three major averages hit their session lows after Trump delivered remarks in the White House Friday, in which he said he’d rather have National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett stay in his current role and might not be chosen to become the next Fed chair.
• Chip stocks provide lift for the week.

For the week, the S&P 500 (SPX) fell 0.4% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 (NDX) was down 0.9%. The Dow Index ($DJI) fell 0.3% last week but the small-cap Russell 2000 (RUT) jumped 2% to new record highs.

Hasset out of the lead for Fed Chair?: NEC Director Kevin Hassett had been seen as a frontrunner to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May, but prediction markets showed former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh moved ahead in the race following the president’s remarks. Traders see Hassett as the more market-friendly option to replace Powell, with Wall Street expecting him to be more willing than Warsh to keep rates low.

Semi’s help lessen the Blow: The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) rose 2.9% last week as gains in Taiwan Semi (TSM), Broadcom (AVGO), Lam Research (LRCX) and Micron (MU) led the sector higher. The SMH hit all-time highs this week and continues its outperformance from 2025.

Markets are Closed on Monday in observance of the MLK holiday.

Market Events for Tuesday, January 20: N/A

Notable Earnings for Tuesday, January 20:

• Premarket: MMM, DHI, FAST, FITB, KEY, USB
• Post Market: OZK, IBKR, NFLX, UAL, ZION

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