Honestly, if you're looking at your brokerage account right now and feeling a little "meh," you aren't alone. Today is Saturday, January 17, 2026, which means the literal answer to how much is the stock market down today is actually zero—the physical exchanges in New York are closed for the weekend.
But that’s a bit of a cop-out. The real story is what happened as we hit the closing bell yesterday and why everyone is suddenly obsessed with the long weekend. Wall Street finished Friday in a bit of a funk. The S&P 500 slipped about 0.06% to end at 6,940.01. It’s not a crash. It’s not even a stumble. It’s more like the market decided to take a nap right before a three-day weekend (with Martin Luther King Jr. Day coming up on Monday).
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also dipped 0.06%, landing at 23,515.39, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average took a slightly harder hit, falling 0.17% to close at 49,359.33. If you’re keeping score, that puts all three major indexes in the red for the week.
The Politics of the Fed and Why Prices are Wobbly
So, why is the market acting so jittery? It basically comes down to a high-stakes game of musical chairs at the Federal Reserve.
Jerome Powell’s term is wrapping up in May, and the gossip coming out of the White House is driving traders crazy. President Trump recently hinted that he might keep Kevin Hassett—who everyone thought was a shoe-in for the Fed Chair spot—in his current role at the National Economic Council instead. That makes Kevin Warsh look like the new front-runner.
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Investors hate uncertainty. They especially hate uncertainty when the Fed is already divided. We’ve seen a rare split in FOMC votes lately, with some members wanting 50-basis-point cuts and others wanting to hold steady. When the people steering the ship can’t agree on where the lighthouse is, the passengers (that’s us) start looking for the lifeboats.
Space Stocks vs. Retail Gloom
It wasn't all bad news, though. If you were holding space-related stocks, you probably had a great Friday. AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) went absolutely vertical, jumping over 14% after snagging a massive government defense contract. Firefly Aerospace also caught a tailwind, rising about 12%.
On the flip side, retail and banking looked kinda rough. Regions Financial fell nearly 3% after missing earnings expectations and giving some pretty "blah" guidance for the rest of the year. There's also this looming cloud over the financial sector because of the proposed 10% cap on credit card interest rates.
- S&P 500: Finished at 6,940.01 (-0.06%)
- Nasdaq: Finished at 23,515.39 (-0.06%)
- Dow: Finished at 49,359.33 (-0.17%)
While these daily moves are tiny, the context is what matters. We’re currently in the second year of a presidential term, which historically is the weakest year for stocks. Since 1948, the S&P 500 averages only about a 4.6% gain in midterm election years. Compare that to the 16% gain we saw in 2025, and you can see why people are nervous.
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Is the AI Bubble Finally Leaking?
People have been screaming about an AI bubble since 2023. Are they finally right? Well, Nvidia (NVDA) has been trading sideways for months now, even though the broader S&P 500 has been hitting record highs. Yesterday, Nvidia was basically flat at $186.
But here’s the nuance: the "Magnificent Seven" aren't all moving in sync anymore. While Nvidia is treading water, companies like GE Vernova are surging because everyone realized that AI data centers need an ungodly amount of power.
The Shiller CAPE ratio—a metric that compares stock prices to 10 years of earnings—is sitting near 40. The only other times it’s been this high were right before the 1929 crash and the 2000 dot-com bust. That doesn't mean a crash is happening tomorrow, but it means the "margin for error" is gone. If a company misses earnings by even a penny right now, the market is punishing them.
What You Should Actually Do Now
Watching how much is the stock market down today is a great way to give yourself an ulcer, but it’s a terrible way to manage a portfolio.
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Honestly, the smart move right now is checking your "Magnificent Seven" exposure. If 40% of your net worth is tied up in three tech stocks, you're not an investor; you're a gambler.
- Build a Cash Buffer: With the Fed in flux and geopolitical tensions over places like Greenland (yeah, that's still a thing) and Venezuela, having 5-10% in a high-yield savings account or money market fund is just common sense.
- Look at Value: Everyone is chasing the "next Nvidia," but the boring stuff—industrials, utilities, and even some healthcare names like Novo Nordisk—are showing much more resilience lately.
- Ignore the Weekend Noise: Since markets are closed until Tuesday morning, stop refreshing your app. The futures markets will start moving Sunday night, and that will give us a better hint of whether the sell-off continues.
Take the long weekend to rebalance. If you've got winners, it’s never a bad idea to take a little off the table. Keep an eye on those Tuesday morning futures, but don't let a 0.06% dip ruin your Saturday.
To get a better handle on your specific risk, you can look up the "Beta" of your largest holdings to see how much they'll likely drop if the S&P 500 finally has a real correction.