US stock futures pulled back on Friday as investors waited to learn President Trump's pick to lead the Federal Reserve, with the dollar rallying and gold tumbling on reports it will be Kevin Warsh.

S&P 500 futures (ES=F) slid 0.9%, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) sank roughly 1.2%, pointing to another down session for tech stocks. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) backed off 0.7%.

Markets are calculating the potential impact if Trump chooses Warsh as the US central bank's next chair as expected, per a Bloomberg report. The former Fed Governor has a hawkish record on interest rates but has recently voiced support for cuts — which Trump has aggressively campaigned for. The president has said he would announce his candidate on Friday morning.

The dollar (DX-Y.NYB) rose as bets on Warsh ramped up, while the 30-year Treasury (^TYX) led gains in yields, up five basis points. Gold (GC=F) and silver (SIL=F) tumbled, putting the brakes on runaway rallies, as the dollar's advance made the precious metals more expensive for many buyers.

In addition, the watch is on for the next trade move from Trump, who threatened to hit Canada aircraft imports with a 50% tariff. The US would also decertify all new jets from the likes of Bombardier (BDRBF), Trump said, claiming Canada has used certification hurdles to effectively ban the sale of US Gulfstream jets. Meanwhile, Mexico is facing new levies after Trump promised to impose new tariffs on countries providing oil to Cuba.

On the earnings front, Apple's (AAPL) shares traded flat in premarket after its results closed out a mixed bag of Big Tech reports for the week. While its quarterly profit topped estimates, fueled by record iPhone sales, its CEO Tim Cook warned the global memory shortage will hit future margins.

Meanwhile, shares in Sandisk (SNDK) surged 20% following upbeat forward guidance from the data storage company. Looking ahead, oil producers are the highlights on Friday's docket with Exxon (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) reports due before the open. Results from American Express (AXP) and Verizon (VZ) are also on deck.

Despite recent volatility, major indexes remain mostly higher for the week. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) are each up, while the Dow (^DJI) remains slightly down. All the gauges are pacing for January gains.

From Bloomberg:

Gold (GC=F) and silver (SIL=F) sold off heavily on Friday, cooling a record-breaking rally, as a report the Trump administration is preparing to nominate Kevin Warsh for Federal Reserve chair boosted the dollar.

Silver plunged more than 16% toward $96 an ounce, while gold fell more than 7% below $5,000, intensifying the wild swings that interrupted record-breaking rallies that had stretched technical indicators. A gauge of the dollar (DX-Y.NYB) rose as much as 0.5%, making precious metals more expensive for most buyers. Platinum (PL=F) tumbled more than 10%.

President Donald Trump is expected to name Warsh as his nomination for Fed chair, Bloomberg News reported. The former Fed governor has a longstanding reputation as an inflation hawk, but has aligned himself with the president in recent months by arguing publicly for lower interest rates. Trump said he would announce his nominee on Friday morning US time.

Gold’s move “validates the cautionary tale of fast-up, fast-down,” said Christopher Wong, a strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. While reports of Warsh’s nomination were a trigger, a correction was overdue, he said. “It’s like one of those excuses markets are waiting for to unwind those parabolic moves.”

Read more here.

From Bloomberg:

The dollar (DX-Y.NYB) rose with Treasury yields after US President Donald Trump was said to be preparing to nominate Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair, seen as a relatively hawkish choice.

The greenback gained versus all its major peers, while US 10-year yields (^TNX) climbed three basis points. Trump had settled on Warsh, according to people familiar with the matter, but added that the selection wasn’t final until a formal announcement was made.

“The market perception is that Kevin Warsh would be the relatively more traditional and less dovish option as Fed chair, in which case we might see fewer rate cuts,” said Andrew Ticehurst, a senior strategist at Nomura Australia Ltd. in Sydney.

The market moves are a sign the monthslong uncertainty over the next Fed chief is now getting closer to a resolution. Warsh, a former Fed governor and one of the four finalists on Trump’s shortlist to be the next central bank leader, visited the White House on Thursday, one of the people said.

Betting markets have increasingly favored Warsh, with Polymarket showing his chance of becoming the next Fed chair rising above 80% on Friday in Asia, as support faded for BlackRock Inc. executive Rick Rieder. Flows into interest-rate futures betting on a dovish policy shift had accelerated in recent days as Rieder’s odds moved to the top, with investors viewing him as more dovish than Warsh.

Read more here.

Sandisk (SNDK) stock surged nearly 20% in premarket following its earnings release, adding to its massive 127% rally year to date. The memory chip maker was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 in 2025.

The company crushed expectations in its fiscal second quarter, as AI companies have had an insatiable demand for memory and storage hardware.

Sandisk said that revenue for its data center business segment jumped 64% over the previous quarter, driven by strong adoption among AI infrastructure builders, semi-custom customers, and technology companies deploying AI at scale.

Here's what Sandisk reported for its fiscal second quarter, compared to estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

Adjusted earnings: $6.20 per share, versus $3.44 estimated

Revenue: $3.03 billion, versus $2.67 billion estimated

Sandisk also raised its revenue guidance for the third quarter to a range of $4.4 billion to $4.8 billion. The Street was expecting revenue of $2.6 billion.

“This quarter's performance underscores our agility in capitalizing on better product mix, accelerating enterprise SSD deployments, and strengthening market demand dynamics, all at a time when the critical role that our products play in powering AI and the world's technology is being recognized,” said Sandisk CEO David Goeckeler.

Bloomberg reports:

Gold (GC=F) fell, following its first drop in nearly two weeks, as the US dollar strengthened after a report the Trump administration is preparing to nominate Kevin Warsh for Federal Reserve chair.

Bullion retreated as much as 4.8% on Friday, having gained as much as 1.4% earlier, continuing the wild swings that interrupted a record-breaking rally in the previous session. A gauge of the dollar rose as much as 0.5%, making precious metals more expensive for most buyers.

President Donald Trump is expected to name Warsh as his nomination for Fed chair, Bloomberg News reported. He has a longstanding reputation as an inflation hawk, but has aligned himself with the president in recent months by arguing publicly for lower interest rates. Trump said he would announce his nominee on Friday morning US time.

Gold’s move “validates the cautionary tale of fast-up, fast-down,” said Christopher Wong, a strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. While reports of Warsh’s nomination were a trigger, a correction was overdue, he said. “It’s like one of those excuses markets are waiting for to unwind those parabolic moves,” he said.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

AI startup Perplexity signed a $750 million deal with Microsoft Corp. to use its Azure cloud service, spreading its business beyond longtime cloud partner Amazon.com Inc.

The three-year commitment will let Perplexity deploy AI models through Microsoft’s Foundry service, including those made by OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, according to people familiar with the deal, who requested anonymity to discuss a private matter.

“We are excited to partner with Microsoft for access to frontier models from X, OpenAI and Anthropic,” a Perplexity spokesperson said.

Perplexity hasn’t shifted spending from Amazon Web Services, long the startup’s main cloud provider, as part of the Microsoft deal, the spokesperson added.

Read more here.