Powell Testimony, Earnings

Good morning contrarians! Welcome to the Daily Contrarian, our morning look at events likely to move markets. It is Tuesday, Feb. 11.

State of Play

Stocks advanced yesterday, led by tech as the Nasdaq gained 1% on the day. As we eye our board of indicators for signs of direction at 0640, that appears due for a reversal, presumably due to those pesky Trump tariffs:

• Stock index futures are moving a bit lower, with the Nasdaq down 0.5% and S&P 500 down 0.3%;

• Commodities are mixed. Copper is retreating, down 2.4%, but WTI crude oil is up 1% to move north of $73/barrel. Gold is unchanged at $2,932/oz.

• Cryptos are quiet. Bitcoin is unchanged at $98,000;

• Bonds are moving a bit lower. The 10-year yield is up 3 basis points to 4.52% (yields move inversely to prices).

Today’s Known Events

We start with earnings again. Busy morning here:

• Shopify (SHOP 0.00%↑) provides the headline from tech land at the top of the hour;

• Coca Cola (KO 0.00%↑) is due intermittently;

• DuPont (DD 0.00%↑), which supplies industrial materials and may therefore be a bellwether for import tariffs on industrial metals, beat estimates and is rallying this morning, up 8% at the time of this writing;

• Marriott International (MAR 0.00%↑) also reports before the open;

• Highlights after the close include Supermicro (SMCI 0.00%↑), Upstart Holdings (UPST 0.00%↑), DoorDash (DASH 0.00%↑), and Lyft (LYFT 0.00%↑).

Fed Chair Jerome Powell returns to the nation’s capital for his semi-annual testimony to Congress. This is a two-day gig, starting with the Senate Banking Committee today and House Financial Services Committee tomorrow. The proceedings kick off at 1000.

Would not expect Powell to provide much new information and the lawmakers in Washington certainly won’t ask educated questions because, well, they’re idiots.

‘Fed Chair Powell returns to Capitol Hill’ by author via Grok AI