Good morning contrarians! Welcome to the Daily Contrarian, our morning look at events likely to move markets. It is Friday, Nov. 15. The Bottom Line segment of today’s podcast starts at (2:49), followed by Stocks on the Contrarian Radar©️ featuring EV and pharma stocks for listeners who want to skip ahead.
State of Play
Stocks and cryptos dropped yesterday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish commentary. As we eye our board of indicators for signs of direction at 0555 it appears that risk appetite is continuing to abate:
Stock index futures are pointing to a lower open, led by tech for a change. The Nasdaq is down 0.8%. S&P 500 futures looking at a loss of 0.6%;
Commodities are mixed. WTI crude oil is down 1% to trade around $68/barrel but copper is up 1.6%;
Cryptos are moving lower again. Bitcoin is down 2% to trade close to $89,000;
Bonds are unchanged after selling off yesterday. The 2-year yields 4.32%, the 10-year 4.44%.
Today’s Known Events
Alibaba (BABA 0.00%↑) reports earnings this morning before the open. So does Spectrum Brands (SPB 0.00%↑).
Retail sales are out at 0830. Economists who were surveyed expect an increase of 0.3% month-over-month, a slight downtick from the 0.4% recorded last month. Core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, is also expected to print at 0.3% MoM versus 0.5% last month. Worth keeping in mind that retail sales usually trail unemployment where indicators are concerned. Nevertheless, it is an important datapoint for the economy and one that is watched closely. It may even more markets.
We also get industrial production at 0915. This is much more of a leading indicator, at least of the industrial segment of the economy. The number anticipated is -0.3% MoM, identical to last month.
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