Things had been looking up for North American markets today but bullish hopes have been dashed in the last few minutes with markets turning downward on news that US inflation continues to rise, increasing pressure on the Fed to take action US consumer prices jumped 7.5% from a year ago in January, an acceleration from December’s 7.0% pace and came in worse than the 7.3% street estimate. On the other hand, US jobless claims were slightly better than expected (223K vs street 230K).
Before the inflation news, US index futures were steady, digesting yesterday’s gains, but now they have turned downward once again with NASDAQ futures falling 1.2% and S&P Futures falling 0.6%. The US 10-year treasury note yield has popped back up above 1.95% and is approaching the 2.00% big psychological round number hurdle. The US Dollar is also on the rise this morning, gaining 0.8% against Gold, 0.5% against the Yen, and 0.2% against both the Euro and the Canadian Dollar. Commodities have been holding onto this morning’s gains so far with WTI crude oil up 1.1% and Copper up 0.8%.
Canada has now moved into the peak of earnings season with mixed results. Reports from big insurers Manulife Financial ($0.84 vs street $0.82) and Sun Life ($1.53 vs street $1.52) beat expectations, but numbers from Canada Goose is down 10.5% premarket after missing expectations on earnings ($1.42 vs street $1.45) and sales ($586M vs street $590M).
Several notable stocks in the US are soaring in premarket trading today after posting positive results, including Walt Disney ($1.06 vs street $0.63, up 7.5% premarket), Mattel ($0.53 vs street $0.30, up 10.5% premarket), Uber (-$0.26 vs street -$0.35, up 5.7% premarket), and Coca-Cola ($0.45 vs street $0.41). Surprisingly, Twitter is up 6.3% premarket despite reporting disappointing results ($0.33 vs street $0.35), except that the stock had already sold off last week along with other social media companies.
