Bank Earnings Start Strong; Cryptocurrencies Crumble
US index futures are trading flat to up 0.1% this morning as they try to regain their footing from recent losses, including declines of 0.5% for the S&P 500 and 1.2% for the NASDAQ yesterday. European markets are climbing this morning with the Dax up 0.25% and the FTSE up 0.5%. The biggest action this […]
Walmart Earnings and Tariff Risk Weigh on US Markets
Walmart*, kicked off earnings season for US retailers with disappointing numbers, sending its shares down 4.6% in premarket action. The world’s biggest retailer beat the street by a penny on earnings, beat on sales ($180.5B vs street $180.1B), grew US same store sales over year by 4.6% and raised its dividend by 13%. That all […]
Backing and Filling
The morning after the S&P 500 reached a new all-time high finds US index futures trading flat to down 0.2% with Dow Futures leading the way back downward. This appears to be mainly due to common consolidation after a move, and a lack of new developments to push markets higher. The only notable economic report […]
Stocks Pause Ahead of the Long Weekend
With a long weekend approaching in North America, traders appear inclined to take profits following yesterday’s rally. Soft US retail sales and mixed earnings don’t appear to be helping sentiment either. US headline retail sales (-0.9% vs street -0.1% and previous +0.7%), and retail sales ex autos (-0.4% vs street +0.3%) showed an abrupt and […]
Stocks Slip Ahead of Powell Testimony
Yesterday’s equity market rally which saw major US indices gain 0.4% to 1.0% appears to have run out of steam this morning. US index futures are currently giving back some of yesterday’s gains, falling 0.2%-0.4%, while in Europe, the Dax and FTSE are essentially flat. President Trump launching 25% tariffs on Steel and Aluminum may […]
Stocks Climb Despite Looming Tariffs
Bouncing back from Friday’s US index declines of 0.9% to 1.4%, US index futures are up 0.5% to 0.7% to start the new trading week. Overseas trading finds the Dax up 0.5%, the FTSE up 0.7% and the Hang Seng up 1.8%. Crude Oil is up 1.4%, Natural Gas is up 3.5% and Copper is […]
The Canary in the Coal Mine?
Since President Trump was elected in November the US Dollar has been steamrolling pretty much all other currencies except for precious metals and cryptos (and even those sometimes as well), supported by rising US treasury yields and fewer rate cuts from the Fed relative to other central banks. So far this earnings season, the higher […]
Soft Tech Sales Send Stocks Slumping
NASDAQ futures are down 0.8% this morning, outpacing the 0.1% decline by Dow Futures to the downside. Sentiment appears to be getting impacted by disappointing news from the technology sector. Although Google parent Alphabet and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) both beat expectations, overall cloud revenues at Alphabet and data centre revenues at AMD were […]
Trade War Focus Turns To China
Stocks and currencies have stabilized overnight after President Trump postponed the implementation of tariffs against Canada and Mexico for one month after agreements were reached to improve border security. New 10% tariffs continue, however, and China has retaliated with new tariffs against some US goods and regulatory investigations against some US companies. This morning finds […]
Focus Returns to Earnings and Interest Rates
While the tech sector plunge took most of the attention Monday it ended up being more of a rotational day between sectors as the deep dives of 3.1% for the NASDAQ and 1.5% for the S&P were partly offset by a 0.6% gain for the Dow Industrials. Today US index futures have stabilized trading between […]