By Heard Editors
What Happened in Markets Today
Gold prices went haywire Thursday. Gold futures jumped as much as 6.1% early in the day, and at one point later were down more than 3.3%. That 9.4 percentage point swing between intraday high and low was the biggest range since April 2013, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Gold prices have roughly doubled over the past year amid political and economic uncertainty. Gold futures were trading up slightly late Thursday.
Microsoft's earnings surge failed to energize investors on Wednesday. It reported higher-than-expected spending on data centers and other AI infrastructure while growth in its closely watched cloud business slowed. Microsoft stock fell 10%. The disappointing earnings fed into a tech selloff Thursday, pushing the Nasdaq composite down 0.7%.
The damage wasn't particularly widespread. The Dow industrials finished little changed, with about 20 of the 30 stocks in the blue-chip average up on the day. IBM, Honeywell and Merck were all up 2.5% or more, aiding the Dow. A majority of S&P sectors were also up on the day. A rally in Meta Platforms helped the communications services sector, while JPMorgan and other banks boosted financial stocks.
Oil prices jumped on reports that President Trump is weighing new strikes on Iran. A number of Middle Eastern governments are attempting to mediate talks between the U.S. and Iran, but the efforts are failing to gain traction.
President Trump said he would announce his pick to lead the Federal Reserve next week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been managing the search and has presented Trump with four finalists: Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor; Christopher Waller, a current Fed governor Trump appointed to the board in 2020; Rick Rieder, a senior executive at BlackRock; and Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council.
This analysis comes from the Journal's Heard on the Street team. Subscribe to their free daily afternoon newsletter here.
This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 29, 2026 17:16 ET (22:16 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
