Trump Talks Tonight as Tariff War Begins

The long threatened 25% US tariffs against Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs against Canadian Energy and China began at midnight this morning. The announcement yesterday, which sent US indices down 1.5% to 2.6%, has continued to impact stocks around the world overnight. Tokyo fell 1.2%, and European trading this morning finds Frankfurt down 2.4%, […]

March Starts Strong Led By Crypto Recovery

Last week’s uncertainty and caution has quickly gone by the wayside as bulls have roared back to life to kick off March. President Trump’s announcement of a Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve has lit a fire under the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin has rallied from just above $80,000 to above $92,500, currently up about 10.6%.  The prospect of […]

Stock Selloff Continued Overseas Overnight

The last trading day of February finds stocks trying to stabilize following yesterday’s selloff that saw the Dow lose 0.4%, the S&P fall 1.6% and the NASDAQ drop 2.8%. Today finds NASDAQ futures flat and Dow futures up 0.4%. Chipmaker Nvidia which plunged 8.5% yesterday post-earnings remains under pressure, however, down another 1.8% premarket. Asia […]

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 […]

Stocks Bounce Back as Canadian Bank Earnings Week Begins

It appears that Friday’s North American selloff was primarily related to options expiry as markets have been bouncing back this morning. US Index Futures are up 0.4% to 0.7%, with Dow Futures leading the rebound from Friday’s US index losses of 1.7% to 2.2%. In Europe today, the Dax is up 0.9% with investors celebrating […]

Stirred, Not Shaken

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 […]

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 […]

Positive Start to a Shortened Trading Week

US traders have returned from the long weekend in a good mood. US index futures are up 0.2%-0.5%. Europe is now in the green with the Dax and FTSE both up about 0.2%. Asia Pacific trading saw the Hang Seng rally 1.6%. The US Dollar is dropping back a bit today. Gold is up 1.0%, […]

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 […]