Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Friday, January 30th, and I'm your host, Kim Khan. This is a special Fed-focused Wall Street lunch.

President Donald Trump says he has selected Kevin Warsh to be the next Federal Reserve chairman.

Warsh served on the Fed's Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011, at the time its youngest member.

He acted as Ben Bernanke's key liaison to Wall Street and the G20 through the financial crisis

and as the board's administrative governor overseeing operations and personnel.

Before joining the Fed, he worked

in Morgan Stanley's M&A group, and then in George W. Bush's White House. 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 chairman, maybe the best,

Trump posted. If confirmed, Warsh would become the 17th Fed chair, succeeding Jay Powell, when Powell's

term as chairman ends in May.

The move was heavily telegraphed by overnight reports, and market reaction was pretty sanguine.

Stocks took a leg down on the headlines but recovered. Treasury yields are down on the shorter

end, up on the longer end, and the beleaguered dollar is up. Most importantly, Fed Fund's

futures are still pricing in two quarter point rate cuts this year,

roughly the same as when Trump's pick was unknown, though the odds of three cuts did edge higher.

That suggests the market is still unsure whether Warsh will lean into the hawkish reputation

he built over the years or line up more closely with Trump's desire for the lowest rates around.

James Thorne, chief market strategist at Wellington

Altus, notes that Warsh earned his hot credentials as a big opponent of quantitative easing,

but says he's clearly in line with Trump's productive capital supply-side agenda,

prioritizing investment, productivity, and private sector credit creation over financial engineering.

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