11AM Hour: Swearing-In Ceremony for Kevin Warsh as Fed Chair, Energy Inflation Here to Stay? Is OpenAI the WeWork of AI? 5/22/26

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Carl Quintanilla (1:02)

Good Friday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Leslie Picker live at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Sara Eisen is off today. This hour, the president set to swear in Kevin Warsh as the 17th chair of the Federal Reserve. Ceremony takes place at the White House for the first time since Greenspan back in 87

We're going to take you there live in just a few moments. As for the markets coming off of the opening highs, we got to 74.99 S&P at the open and all sectors were green. A little bit more mixed at the moment, but we still have industrials and consumer discretionary and some technology leading the charge as the tenure gets a little bit more mild back below 46

Leslie Picker (1:40)

We begin today in Washington in the swearing in ceremony of Kevin Warsh. Let's get straight to Eamon Javers in DC. Eamon.

Eamon Javers (1:47)

Hey there Leslie, you just heard Carl say it. This will be the first Federal Reserve chair sworn in at the White House since Alan Greenspan all the way back in 1987 Most recent chairs have opted to be sworn in at the Fed's headquarters to preserve the image of Fed independence from the White House.

That symbolic closeness between Kevin Warsh and President Trump raises the big question that's going to hang over his entire chairmanship. Will this chairman be a tool of the President of the United States, or will he be his own man? Warsh takes over as President Donald Trump has been campaigning intensely for lower interest rates to spur the US economy and lower US government borrowing costs. But at the same time, inflationary pressures from Trump's war in Iran, including higher gas prices, sticky inflation data, and robust employment numbers, may all be arguing for rate hikes this year instead of cuts. And that raises the prospect of an early test of the Warsh-Trump relationship. The market expects the Fed not to cut at its meeting next month, leaving rates unchanged despite Trump's call for cuts. And just this morning, we're seeing Fed board member Christopher Waller suggest he's open to the possibility of hikes, saying in a speech in Germany, if I believe inflation expectations start to become unanchored, I would not hesitate to support an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate. Now, here's what we know about where Warsh stands on the issues facing his Fed. He's called for lowering interest rates. We just talked about reducing the Fed's balance sheet and bank deregulation. He's also argued that AI-led productivity will allow the economy to run fairly hot. For now, President Trump is signaling that Warsh does have some political running room. Asked about the prospect of a Warsh Fed hiking rates this week, Trump said, I'm going to let him do what he wants to do.

But of course, that comment implies that Trump sees himself, not Warsh, as the person who's ultimately in charge of interest rates. Guys, back over to you.

Carl Quintanilla (3:47)

Yeah, there's going to be a lot of tea leaf reading in the days to come, Aiman. You know, earlier in the week, when you had a pretty steep curve, there was some discussion about what his remarks would sound like today. And if he suggested that rates would eventually be lower at the front end, would that force more capitulation at the long end? That's going to be key.

Eamon Javers (4:06)

Yeah, look, and you look at this Trump-Warsh relationship, and it is so fascinating, right? Because Trump turned on Jay Powell, who, remember, Trump nominated Powell to be chairman back during his first term, turned on him hard. And the question is, you know, how long do you think Warsh has before Trump turns on him if Warsh doesn't immediately begin a campaign of lowering rates?