/ April 15
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Tuesday:
NY Empire State Manufacturing Index (-14.8 exp.)
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Wednesday:
Retail Sales MoM (1.3% exp.)
Fed Chair Powell Speech
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Thursday:
Housing Starts (1.41M exp.)
Initial Jobless Claims (224K exp.)
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Friday:
N/A -
Tuesday:
Johnson & Johnson
Bank of America
Citigroup
Interactive Brokers
United Airlines
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Wednesday:
Abbott Labs
ASML
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Thursday:
UnitedHealth Group
American Express
Charles Schwab
Snap-On
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Friday:
N/A
Daily Briefing
*The stock market logged gains to start the week; an early surge saw the S&P 500 trade up as much as +1.8%, but the index settled +0.8% higher than Friday after briefly turning negative and bouncing off its session low around mid-day;
*Buying interest was rooted in relief that smartphones, laptops, semiconductors, solar cells, and other electronic items will be exempt from the 10% global tariffs and the 125% tariff rate on imports from China; the subsequent deterioration was related in part to the understanding that imports from China are still subject to the 20% fentanyl-related tariff;
*SPY was unable to clear technical resistance at $544 in order to warrant inclusion in our asset class allocation system - Enterprise; support stands near the current lows, at $507;
*Commerce Secretary Lutnick clarified that the exemptions will be temporary and President Trump said that he will soon announce a tariff rate for semiconductors;
*The ebb and flow of equities was also driven by choppy action in mega caps; NVIDIA (NVDA, -0.2%) was an influential name in that respect, trading up as much as +3.0% at its high and trading down as much as -1.7% at its low;
*Ten of the 12 S&P 500 sectors ultimately closed in the green and seven of them finished more than +1.0% higher, including the financial sector, which was helped by a positive response to above-consensus quarterly results from Goldman Sachs (GS 503.98, +9.54, +1.9%);
*The rate-sensitive real estate (+2.2%) and utilities (+1.8%) sectors led the pack as market rates dropped; the 10-yr yield dropped 13 basis points to 4.36% and the 2-yr yield dropped 12 basis points to 3.83%;
*There was no notable US economic data on the day; this week's calendar features March Retail Sales on Wednesday, and March Housing Permits and Building Permits on Thursday;
*There is also an ECB meeting on Thursday and the central bank is expected to announce a 25-basis point rate cut;