More Earnings, Sino-US Trade War

Good morning contrarians! Welcome to the Daily Contrarian, our morning look at events likely to move markets. It is Wednesday, Feb. 5. Happy Hump Day! Today’s Stocks On The Contrarian Radar©️ segment features GOOG 0.00%↑/ GOOGL 0.00%↑ and can be read at the bottom of this page.

Be sure to read the monthly portfolio update!

State of Play

Stocks rallied yesterday, led by tech. There was unfortunately some bad news after the close from tech land as Google/Alphabet earnings disappointed investors. As we eye our board of indicators for signs of direction at 0640, that is weighing on markets:

• Stock index futures are pointing to a lower open, led by tech. It actually wasn’t just Google but also AMD (AMD 0.00%↑) that is weighing on things. The Nasdaq is down 0.9%. S&P 500 futures are down 0.5%;

• Bonds are seeing a few bids for some reason. The 10-year yield is down 4 basis points to 4.47% (yields move inversely to prices);

• Cryptos aren’t doing much. Bitcoin is unchanged trading around $98,000;

• Commodities are pretty quiet as well. WTI crude oil is down 0.7% to trade around $72/barrel. Copper is unchanged.

Today’s Known Events

Earnings get us started again:

• Disney (DIS 0.00%↑) just reported mixed results but is still up a bit in the pre-market;

• Toyota Motor (TM 0.00%↑) earlier reported results that appear to have impressed investors and that stock is moving higher in the pre-market.

• Uber (UBER 0.00%↑) is also due before the open at 0930;

• After the close at 1600 we’ll hear Arm Holdings (ARM 0.00%↑), Qualcomm (QCOM 0.00%↑) and Ford (F 0.00%↑) among others.

In terms of economic data, we get ISM non-manufacturing PMIs at 1000. Economists who were surveyed expect a reading of 54.2, effectively in line with the 54.0 recorded last month.

One Fed speaker The Contrarian was able to confirm: Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee at 1430 ET.

There is of course also the matter of the Sino-US trade war. Unlike the US-Mexico and US-Canada matches, this one does not appear to be going anywhere.