Kingsview CIO Scott Martin On News Nation with Connell McShane – 1.30.26
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CONNELL McSHANE: The stock market is about to close out the day—and the week—and it’s doing so on a down note. We look at those numbers: the Nasdaq, in the middle of the screen here, is down one percent on the day that President Trump made it official, announcing Kevin Warsh as his pick to be the next Fed chairman.
Let’s bring in Scott Martin. Scott is the Chief Investment Officer at Kingsview Wealth Management. Good to see you, my friend. Where are you—in heaven? What kind of a shot is that I’m seeing?
SCOTT MARTIN: In heaven. I’m coming down to tell you that you’re about to come back with me—because I know you own gold and silver, and you shouldn’t these days.
CONNELL McSHANE: Man, looks like something’s surrounding you.
SCOTT MARTIN: It’s an aura.
CONNELL McSHANE: Yeah, that’s what it is. We’re all praying for you. What about the market—what’s surrounding the market? To me, and I said earlier, I can be wrong—I’m often wrong about markets—but everybody’s focused on the new Fed pick today. There’s a lot more going on. There’s been a lot this week with AI, all the spending, and people starting to question the run-up. So what’s going on on a Friday that stands out?
SCOTT MARTIN: Well, seriously, the metal trade for one. You look at gold and silver today—I mean, I’m going to have to give you back the necklace you gave me a couple weeks ago because I don’t want it anymore. I think a lot of folks are looking at some of the other ancillary trades going on with the metals—certainly energy—and I think, like you mentioned, AI and some of the general tech names. Not just AI, but some of the other server-related names—those are getting hit here and there.
There have been some earnings reports that have been so-so. They’ve been fine, they haven’t been bad. Then you mix in this metal squeeze, where we had this inexplicable run-up in gold and silver—and even copper yesterday hit an all-time high—and now we’re seeing that squeeze come out. A lot of folks are sitting around worrying, “Okay, what’s next? What’s next that’s going to get squeezed out?” And that’s a concern for a lot of people, especially as you may be seeing some margin calls, like we saw come into the metals today.
CONNELL McSHANE: That’s interesting. What about oil? All kinds of rumors and headlines and comments floating around about Iran—what might happen, what might not happen. How do you look at oil? This has really been a rough one.
Give him a second—you weren’t on for a second there for some reason.
SCOTT MARTIN: Heavenly bodies. Yeah—well, here’s the thing about energy. We’ve worried about energy for years now, as far as price. And energy, as you know, comes into play with a lot of companies—production, deliveries, things like that. As energy has risen over the last few weeks, it’s put a strain on possible profits for many companies in the U.S. and around the world.
It’s also put this new fear into the market: okay, if energy is going to go wild or move higher over the course of the year, what else is going to be taken up with it? We talk about inflation a lot when we talk about the consumer. Is this going to be the new effect on the consumer when it comes to transportation costs and fabrication costs that we didn’t have to worry about months and years ago?
CONNELL McSHANE: Okay. One of the reasons I brought up those two issues before getting into Kevin Warsh at all—even bringing him up—is because I don’t think you can look at a day where the Nasdaq is down one percent and say Trump picking Warsh caused it. There’s probably an argument to be made that Trump may have picked Warsh, at least in part, because he thinks it would be good for the market longer-term. He’s a well-respected guy on Wall Street. Is he right about that?
SCOTT MARTIN: I believe he is. I think Warsh comes in maybe as a gentler body—one that might be a little more independent than some of the other choices that could have been made. I think that’s good. The Fed staying independent, Connell, is a very big thing. We don’t want to completely emasculate the Fed to where it’s not doing anything on its own and is doing everything via the executive branch.
But if we look at what happened today, I’d argue it wasn’t great for the market, because we saw a lot of volatility—amazingly not so much in the S&P, Nasdaq, or even the bond market—but in a lot of other places. There are other effects from the Warsh pick that we’re probably going to find out about over the next few weeks.
CONNELL McSHANE: People think Warsh is going to do Trump’s bidding one hundred percent for him. He might not do that once he’s in there.
SCOTT MARTIN: Well, once he’s in there, what did he promise in the beginning? Who knows. And what does the economic picture look like? Trump certainly didn’t like Powell and company. Warsh, in theory, may be more dovish—which could mean lower interest rates, maybe more quantitative easing, more monetary stimulus.
But you can’t do that, I don’t think, as chair or governing member if the economy is as strong as we think it is. You need someone who takes into account what the powers-that-be want, but also listens to the economy and says, “This is what we should do,” based on balance and what’s best for the market and the consumer. Hopefully, he does that.
CONNELL McSHANE: Scott, thanks for coming on. God bless.
Investment advisory services offered through Kingsview Wealth Management, LLC (“KWM”), an SEC Registered Investment Adviser. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through Kingsview Trust and Insurance Services (“KTI”), by individually licensed and appointed insurance agents. KWM and KTI are subsidiaries of Kingsview Partners. KWM is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
