What’s News in Markets: Fed Chair, Layoffs, Meme Stock
WSJ Your Money Briefing
The Wall Street Journal
4.1 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Millions of Americans use credit cards to purchase goods every day. The Durbin Marshall credit card mandates put the secure transactions you rely on at risk, leaving you vulnerable to hackers and foreign cybercriminals that want your data. Hackers win. You lose. Guard your card before it's too late. Tell Congress your data security is not for sale and oppose the Durbin Marshall credit card mandates. |
| 0:28.1 | Paid for by Electronic Payments Coalition. Hey listeners, your money briefing is on a break, but it will be back with more personal finance information for you in the future. Until then, here's the news moving markets this week. |
| 0:41.2 | Hey, listeners. It's Saturday, January 31st. I'm Crystal Her for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News and Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. |
| 0:56.0 | An onslaught of news coming out of corporate America and the White House, more on that later, |
| 1:01.0 | led to topsy-turvy moves this week. |
| 1:04.0 | Gold, a haven for nervous investors, jumped to a new record earlier this week and settled |
| 1:09.0 | above $5,300 for the first time. But trading turned |
| 1:13.1 | volatile by Thursday, with prices seeing the largest range between the midday high and low since |
| 1:18.5 | 2013. On Friday, gold slumped more than 11%, and silver prices crashed 31%. Both metals saw their |
| 1:27.3 | largest one-day percentage declines since 1980. |
| 1:30.3 | Also on Thursday was some trouble in tech stocks. |
| 1:33.3 | Disappointing earnings from Microsoft drove a widespread tech sell-off and signal that investors are skeptical |
| 1:39.3 | about the eye-popping cost of building artificial intelligence infrastructure. |
| 1:43.3 | Microsoft lost $357 billion in market value, its largest single-day drop on record, and the second |
| 1:51.6 | largest one-day market cap decline for any U.S. company. |
| 1:55.6 | In the stock market, though, the moves were much more mild. |
| 1:58.9 | The S&P 500 was the only major index to end the week with gains |
| 2:02.4 | rising 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial average fell 0.4%, and the NASDA composite declined 0.2%. |
| 2:11.8 | First up, let's talk about the biggest piece of news this week for Fedheads. President Trump has |
| 2:17.0 | nominated Kevin |
| 2:17.8 | Warsh, a former Fed governor turned critic, to chair the Central Bank after Jerome Powell's term |
| 2:23.4 | expires in mid-May. The nomination was one of the most important personnel decisions Trump |
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