SOTS 2nd Hour: Delta CEO Talks Shutdown, Jefferies Chief Market Strategist, Bostic Retires & Anthropic News 11/12/25

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Sara Eisen (0:45)

Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen with Carl Quintanilla. We are live from Post 9 as always of the New York Stock Exchange. David Faber on assignment today. Coming up this hour, Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastion will be with us as shutdown-related flight cancellations grow and as the company rings the opening bell here at the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate 100 years in business. Plus, AMD shares jumping this morning after CEO Lisa Su laid out a pretty bullish forecast for growth over the next five years. We'll break down her message to shareholders. Stocks up 6%.

Carl Quintanilla (1:17)

Let's begin, though, with some breaking news from the Fed. For that, we'll turn to Steve Leesman on a very busy day for FedSpeak. Okay, Steve.

Steve Liesman (1:24)

Hey, Carl, good morning. Adding to the busyness here, Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic announcing he will retire at the end of his term, February 2026 You remember, all Fed President's terms end at the five-year period, ending in a six or a one. That is, so they're all up, and Bostic taking this opportunity to retire. He serves Atlanta Fed President since 2017

Atlanta Fed announcing it will form a search committee to look for a replacement. I would say that I don't think that the, there's his bio right there. Since 2017, graduate from Harvard, 87, PhD from Stanford, 95, former HUD secretary, former president, a professor at USC. I don't think the Fed is losing a committed hawk or dove here. Bostic has been very much in the middle. He has also, by the way, experienced some issues related to his investments. They were found to be not intentional in a series of investigations. Whether or not that would be seen as a potential liability to reappointment, especially in this very, very political time. All of this points to perhaps the importance of if the president were to get a majority on the Federal Reserve Board, they would have more control, this group of Trump appointees, more control in who gets reappointed as a Fed president. Separately, guys, we're watching this. New York Fed President John Williams, at a Treasury conference today that includes the Treasury Secretary, says it will not be long before the Fed begins to expand its balance sheet again. That's been out there, but something that has animated the bond market, which also, as you know, was animated by that negative ADP number yesterday, guys.

Sara Eisen (2:57)

But Steve, I think we should draw the distinction, right? Bostic's replacement will not be chosen by the president. He's a Federal Reserve Bank president, right? It's not like a governor where the president gets to pick who he wants. So yes, this will further reshape the views and the faces on the Fed next year, but it won't be another Trump appointee.

Steve Liesman (3:19)

So right, it's an important distinction to make. And I'm sorry if I used a little bit of shorthand on that. The board of the directors of the Atlanta Fed will name and nominate and appoint the Atlanta Fed president. However, as you know, these appointments are approved by the board of governors every five years. So that's the place where Trump appointees and perhaps the president himself through those appointees would get some say in who serves as the bank presidents out there. And that has actually been discussed, this issue of whether or not the president would have that majority, would have some say so or additional say so. Usually, as you know, these approvals by the board tend to be perfunctory. They get involved a little bit on the front end. But usually when the board of directors of the individual district bank nominates, the board of governors tends to approve.

Sara Eisen (4:12)

Right, exactly.

So Myron's position will be up. Fed Chair Powell's chairmanship will be up. We don't know if he's going to stay in his seat or not. That could be another one that the president gets. And then this will be one for the Reserve Bank. Is that what we're tracking for next year?