Tariffs On (Risk Off)

Good morning contrarians! Welcome to the Daily Contrarian, our morning look at events likely to move markets. It is Wednesday, April 9.

State of Play

Stocks dropped yesterday after a dramatic mid-day reversal, all due to tariffs. As we eye our board of indicators for signs of direction at 0640 ET risk-off is once again the story:

• Stock index futures are down, led by small caps. The Russell 2000 is down 1.2% with the S&P 500 giving up 0.8% and Nasdaq -0.2%. The major movement is in pharma stocks, especially European pharma stocks. All of these are dropping on news that the Trump administration will impose tariffs on all pharmaceutical imports ;

• Commodities are mixed. WTI crude oil is dropping pretty precipitously, down 4% to trade around $57/barrel but copper is up 2%. Gold and silver continue their ascent, both up 2% or so;

• Bonds are getting dumped. The 10-year yield is up 11 basis points to 4.37% (yields move inversely to prices);

• Cryptos are down, but not much. Bitcoin is off 2% to trade around $77,500.

Cover art by author via Flux_pro_1.1 AI