After last weekend’s fireworks surrounding the First Republic failure and takeover (yes it has only been a week), investors appear to be taking a “no news is good news” approach to the US banking crisis for now. PacWest Bancorp is up 36.1% in premarket action, building on Friday’s 81.7% bounce after management indicated its business remains fundamentally sound and limited a dividend cut to one cent.
It’s an otherwise quiet start to the week for economic and earnings news, leaving investors to continue digesting last week’s positive employment and earnings reports. The main economic events for the first half of this week are China trade numbers tonight and US Consumer Prices on Wednesday morning.
We are now past the peak of earnings season in the US, with the most notable reporters this week being AirBNB and Electronic Arts on Tuesday, followed by Walt Disney on Wednesday. It’s a big week for earnings in Canada, headlined by the major insurance companies. Canadian headliners include Great-West on Tuesday; Manulife and Nutrien on Wednesday; Sun Life and Canadian Tire on Thursday and Air Canada on Friday.
Commodities are on the rebound this morning with WTI Crude Oil rallying 2.8%, Copper climbing 1.6%, and Platinum gaining 1.0%. Gold is up 0.25%. US Index futures are trading flat to up 0.25% as they consolidate Friday’s rallies of 1.6%-2.2%. In Europe, the Dax is up 0.15%, the FTSE is closed for a holiday.