US stocks fall, as investors fret over Trump's Fed nominee, earnings, inflation

US stocks fall, as investors fret over Trump's Fed nominee, earnings, inflation

By Sinéad Carew and Pranav Kashyap

Fri January 30, 2026 5:27 AM  

Like yesterday, the indexes were way down during the day but at least the Dow and S&P recovered most of these losses by close. The Dow had reached a low of a minus 600 by 1 pm, the S&P down about 80.  The Nasdaq did not fare nearly as well in a straight downward spiral losing over 330 points by 1 pm.  The simple reason for this was new nerves over the nomination of Powell’s replacement, a hawk who is feared to push for more rate cuts than is healthy and push the already fragile economy into even steeper inflation.  

Add to that the continuing flight from megacaps to small caps given disappointing earnings reports and the fear that steep AI investments will not pay off. In fact, for the month, the small cap Russell advanced some 5% vs the major indexes rising from 0.9 to 1.7%, the smaller number on the Nasdaq, the larger on the more defensive industrials. Also weighing things down is the looming potential shutdown which hit obstacles today in the Senate. Today’s sell off was accompanied by a way above the 19.4 billion average of volume, today being 23.9 billion. 

DJ: 49,071.56  +55.96         NAS: 23,685.12  -172.33        S&P: 6,969.01  -9.02            1/29

DJ: 48,892.47  -179.09        NAS: 23,461.82  -223.30        S&P: 6,939.03  -29.98          1/30

Fri 1-30-26 5:00 pm US stocks fall, as investors fret over Trump's Fed nominee, earnings, inflation | Reuters