Jack Pitcher

So we've seen these big moves, big swings in interest rates and big swings in the currency.

There's some anxiety in financial markets about her economic plans because she is a big believer in fiscal spending.

She wants to borrow and spend to really drag Japan out of its economic torpor that it's been in for the last 30 odd years.

And that makes some people in financial markets nervous.

Thank you very much.

Hey, listeners, it's Saturday, January 17.

I'm Jack Pitcher for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them.

Let's get to it.

Calm in the face of chaos.

That was the theme for Markets this week.

On Sunday night, news broke that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is being investigated by U.S.

prosecutors over his testimony about the central bank's building renovation project.

In a video statement, Powell, who is usually quite restrained, called the investigation a pretext as part of President Trump's campaign to pressure the Fed to lower interest rates and end the independence of the central bank.

Investors, concerned that a lack of Fed independence could lead to runaway inflation, have been closely watching the Powell situation.

Meanwhile, banks kicked off earnings season with a mixed bag of results.

JP Morgan disappointed investors with lower than expected investment banking revenue, but Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley posted strong quarters.

At the index level, stocks inched lower for the week.

The S&P 500 ended down 0.4%, just shy of a record high.

The Dow fell 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.7% lower.

Novo Nordisk shares jumped in the U.S.