- US February consumer confidence 91.2 vs 87.0 expected
- Richmond Fed composite index for February -10 versus -8 estimate
- BOE’s Bailey: Services prices inflation has not eased as much as we thought it would
- Home Depot’s Q4 earnings tell the story of a “frozen home environment”
- Fed’s Cook: AI transition could have profound implications but it’s too early to know
- Fed’s Collins: Recent jobs data has been promising
- US December CaseShiller 20-city house price index +1.4% vs +1.4% y/y expected
- Fed’s Goolsbee optimistic there can be more cuts this year but not until inflation lower
- Fed’s Bostic: even with rising productivity, the Fed needs to keep focus on inflation
- U.S. Treasury auctions off $69 billion of 2 year notes at a high yield of 3.455%
Markets:
- Gold down $69 to $5161
- WTI crude oil flat at $66.30
- US 10-year yields up 1.1 bps to 4.04%
- S&P 500 up 0.8%
- NZD leads, JPY lags
The Citrini rout yesterday had many of the hallmarks of a bottom in sentiment around software stocks. The panic yesterday looked like investors trying to get out at any price and it was followed up today by Anthrophic hosting a presentation that touted its partners, including some of the most-beaten up stocks over the past month. As a result, some of those names had big bounces like Thomson-Reuters up 11.5% and the software IGV ETF up 1.8%. Power and chip stocks were also strong once again and AMD rose 8% on a deal with Meta. It wasn’t all cheering though as EXPD and FICO (both AI exposed names) fell badly once again.
The FX market largely followed the mood in stock markets as the US dollar rallied early when stocks were flat but reversed lower as indexes climbed.
In terms of economic data, the improvement in the consumer confidence report was mostly ignored and Fed commentary still leaned heavily towards sitting on the sidelines for a month or two of data.
Traders are now looking toward Trump’s State of the Union speech and particularly any talk about attacking Iran in it.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.