The last 24 hours have seen significant divergences in performance across world markets including overnight and into this morning. In the US, Dow futures are down 0.4%, adding to yesterday’s 1.0% Dow loss. NASDAQ futures are up 0.3%, clawing back most of yesterday’s 0.4% NASDAQ loss.
Overseas, the Hang Seng soared to 4.0% to close at its highest level since early 2022. The Nikkei, Dax and FTSE are all up 0.1%-0.2%. The US Dollar is climbing this morning with gains of 0.25% against gold and silver, 0.1% against the Loonie, 0.25% against the Pound and Aussie, and 0.4% against the Euro. In commodity action, Copper is down 0.5% and Crude Oil is down 0.75%.
Flash PMI reports out overnight were very mixed relative to expectations for Australia, Japan, the UK and Germany, France disappointed on both sides. For the most part, Flash Service reports were a bit above 50 in expansion territory and Flash Manufacturing reports were a bit below 50 in contraction territory. US Flash Manufacturing (street 51.5) and flash Service (street 53.0) reports are due at 9:45 am EST.
Canada retail sales for December crushed expectations (2.5% vs street 1.6%). UK retail sales for January beat expectations (1.0^ vs street 0.6%). US existing home sales are due at 10:00 am EST.
Earnings reports were relatively quiet, the main event being a big beat from Booking Holdings ($41.55 vs street $36.08, up 3.9% premarket). Next week brings results from Canadian banks and US retailers.