In a week of stock market newsworthiness, the hits keep coming this Friday morning. President Trump’s new Fed Chair has been announced: former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh. We also see a key wholesale inflation report hitting the tape for December, along with Big Oil companies reporting Q4 earnings results.

Ahead of the opening bell, the Dow is -250 points, the S&P 500 is -35, the Nasdaq -180 and the small-cap Russell 2000 -30. This is a rather inauspicious start to the trading day, but we’re thus far flat for the trading week, and up from +1% (S&P) to +5.4% (Russell) from the start of January.

Producer Price Index (PPI) Jumps in December

We’re finally starting to catch up on inflation reports following the disruptive federal government shutdown in late 2025. The slightly delayed December report from the Producer Price Index (PPI) came in decidedly warmer on a month over month basis +0.5% on headline, more than double the unchanged +0.2% from the prior month. Year over year PPI came in at +3.0%, in-line with the prior month and the highest level since July of last year.

Stripping out volatile food and energy costs, core PPI month over month soared to +0.7% from a downwardly revised 0.0% in November, more than double the projected +0.3% for last month. Core PPI year over year ramped up 20 basis points (bps) month over month to +3.3%, again the highest print since July. Ex-food, energy and trade — a metric with more importance in our current tariff environment — reached +0.4% for the month and +3.4% for the year. Clearly these numbers are drifting farther away from the Fed’s optimal inflation level of +2%.

Kevin Warsh Named New Fed Chair

Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh has been named the successor to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose second four-year term ends in May. This should come as no surprise to readers of “Ahead of Wall Street,” as it appeared Warsh had the inside track for the job more than six weeks ago. 

This is lifted from the December 17, 2025 “Ahead of Wall Street” report: 

“[T]oday former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh looks to be getting an inside track [on the Fed Chair job]. Warsh was on the FOMC board from the start of Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s first term in February of 2006 until March of 2011. During that time, he was often the sole dissenter on Fed policy. The Stanford-educated Warsh was also an activist in the wake of the financial collapse in 2009, unsuccessfully attempting to bring about mergers between some of Wall Street’s biggest investment banks. In short, his brief tenure on the Fed was filled with eventful moments.

“This might be enough for President Trump to prefer he take the helm as Fed Chair. Another reason — and this one differs from Chair candidate Fed Governor Chris Waller’s public opining about inflation concerns — is that Warsh is a strong proponent of the Fed getting out of the way. He has expressed opposition to the manicuring of the economy throughout the course of the eight Fed meetings per year.”

Q4 Earnings Roundup This Morning: XOM, CVX, VZ & More

International Integrated Oil & Gas giants ExxonMobil (XOM Quick QuoteXOM - Free Report) and Chevron (CVX Quick QuoteCVX - Free Report) both beat earnings expectations for Q4 this morning, but both the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold)-rated Exxon and Zacks Rank #4 (Sell)-rated Chevron are both trading down on the news.

Elsewhere, Verizon (VZ Quick QuoteVZ - Free Report)  and Colgate-Palmolive (CL Quick QuoteCL - Free Report)  also outperformed Q4 expectations on their bottom lines this morning, and both stocks are up following the releases. American Express (AXP Quick QuoteAXP - Free Report)  saw its seven-quarter string of earnings beats come to an end this morning, and shares are trading down in today’s pre-market. All three stocks have a Zacks Rank #4.