Jan 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures slid on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he has firmed up his choice to lead the Federal Reserve, with reports suggesting that former central bank
governor Kevin Warsh would be his likely pick.
Bloomberg News reported that the White House is preparing for Trump to nominate Warsh as the next Fed chair. Reuters reported that Warsh went to the White House for a meeting with Trump on Thursday.
The probability of contracts betting that Trump will nominate Warsh to lead the central bank surged to 94% on prediction market site Polymarket from 33% a day earlier.
Markets broadly perceive Warsh as a candidate who would support lower interest rates, but stop well short of the more aggressive easing associated with other potential picks, including Kevin Hassett, Christopher Waller and Rick Rieder.
Trump said he intends to name his choice to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Friday.
Warsh is seen as a comparatively moderate figure, as one of the less radical choices, and notably more cautious about deploying heavy monetary stimulus despite his preference for lower rates.
"He's a former Fed governor, and while he did have a reputation as being an advocate of tighter monetary policy... he's recently been publicly advocating for a fresh cut in interest rates, aligned with Trump's thinking," said Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist, Wealth Club.
"However, his experience and past attitude imply he's likely to hold the line if sharp inflationary pressures return."
The U.S. dollar and Treasury yields ticked higher on mounting expectations of a Warsh‑led Fed.
At 04:51 a.m., Dow E-minis were down 456 points, or 0.93%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 72.5 points, or 1.04% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 339.75 points, or 1.31%.
Futures tracking the small-cap Russell 2000 index, which is more sensitive to interest rates, fell 1.63%.
The CBOE volatility index - Wall Street's "fear gauge," continued to hover at over one-week highs touched in the previous session. It was up 1.95 points at 18.85.
Indexes were whipsawed on Thursday with the Nasdaq falling over 2%, before finishing 0.7% lower. The S&P also closed down 0.1% after falling over 1%.
Microsoft logged its worst day since March 2020 after its cloud revenue failed to impress, triggering a broad tech sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday.
Its shares were down 0.7% in premarket trading.
Meanwhile, Apple forecast higher-than-expected revenue growth of up to 16% for the March quarter, but warned that rising memory chip prices had started to pressure profitability.
The iPhone maker's shares were marginally lower in premarket trading.
U.S.-listed gold and silver miners tumbled following a over 5% drop in bullion prices and an 11% slide in the white metal.
(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
