- Oman foreign min: There was significant progres in negotiations, talks will resume
- US initial jobless claims 212K vs 215K estimate
- Canada Q4 current account deficit $0.71B vs $7.71B expected
- Jack Dorsey’s Block cutting 4,000 employees, reducing workforce by nearly 50%. Shares jump
- Canadian minister: Gov’t to gov’t conversations on USMCA are “not discouraging”
- U.S. Treasury sells $44 billion of the 7 year notes at a high yield of 3.790%
- Beijing uneasy as Trump–Xi summit preparations lose momentum – report
Markets:
- Nasdaq -1.1%
- WTI crude oil up 8-cents to $65.50
- US 10-year yields down 3.4 bps to 4.01%
- Gold up $16 to $5187
- JPY leads, GBP lags
Eyes were on Nvidia and Iran Thursday following earnings from the chipmaker and nuclear talks regarding the Middle East. The earnings numbers were much stronger than anticipated but it didn’t matter as shares fell 5% after opening flat. That’s a repeat of last quarter’s performance and suggests that AI investors are looking for the exits.
On Iran, the news was all positive as Oman’s mediators, Iranian officials and unnamed US officials all cited progress but the oil market didn’t reflect that. A big reason is likely that we haven’t heard from the White House. Trump willl meet senior advisers Friday for strategic talks on Iran and a debriefing on the talks.
The selloff in Nvidia shares dragged down the Nasdaq but there were more advancers than decliners on the S&P 500 as losers were concentrated in chip names and megacap tech. The Russell 2000 gained on the day and that left FX in a tough spot. At the peak of the equity selling, there was some flight into USD but it reversed later. That saw AAUD/SUD fall to 0.7070 twice but it rebounded above 0.7100 both times and is on track to finish there.
Cable was hit particularly hard again today in a fall down to 1.3446 before a 40 pips rebound. The market seems to be sniffing out rate cuts.
Gold prices were steady with a slight bid despite the Iran news while bitcoin fell to $67,400, giving back a decent sized chunk of yesterday’s big pop.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.