
Morning Watchlist: Can Inflation Data Keep Rally Going?
U.S. stock futures are slightly lower in the premarket following Monday’s massive rally. Traders are taking a breather after the 90-day tariff pause with China announced on Monday sent stocks surging and propelled the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 back into a bull market – up over 20% off of recent lows.
Investor focus will continue to be on tariff headlines and President Trump’s trip to the Middle East, along with inflation data. CPI is expected to remain at a 2.4% rate in April on a year-over-year basis, according to estimates. Excluding food and energy, so-called core inflation is expected to run at a 2.8% annual rate, also unchanged from the prior month.
Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)
- Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are up 1% near $62.50 a barrel, with gains capped by rising supplies and caution over whether the pause in the U.S.-China trade war will lead to a longer-term deal.
- Gold (/GC) – Gold prices are up 1% near $3255 as the dollar is slightly lower and initial optimism over a trade truce between the U.S. & China ebbed, while investors looked forward to U.S. inflation data due this morning.
- Bitcoin (/BTC) – The crypto future is up around 2% near 104K in the premarket.
- VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index was down 16% on Monday and settled at 18.39 as stocks had a massive rally. It was the lowest closing price for the VIX since March 26th. Volatility remains flat this morning.
- U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is down 0.2% to 101.4.
Biggest Premarket Movers (Mark % Change as of 7 AM ET)
- First Solar (FSLR): +5.63%
- Boeing (BA): +1.70%
- Phillips 66 (PSX): +1.21%
- UnitedHealth (UNH): -10.79%
- Elevance Health (ELV): -5.93%
- Enphase Energy (ENPH): -4.69%
Economic Data
- 6:00AM ET: NFIB Small Business Optimism Index
- 8:30AM ET: CPI
- 11:30AM ET: 6-Week Bill Auction, 52-Week Bill Auction
Notable Earnings
- Premarket: ALT, CYBR, HMC, HUYA, IGT, JD, ONON, PSFE, SE, TME, UAA, VG
- Postmarket: CAE, KLC, NU, OKLO
- Premarket Tomorrow: BITF, DT, SONY, TCEHY, TSEM
- Postmarket Tomorrow: BOOT, CSCO, CRWV, DXC, JACK
Upgrades/Downgrades
- Goldman Sachs upgrades Valero (VLO) to Buy from Neutral
- Baird upgrades Caterpillar (CAT) to Outperform from Neutral
- Wolfe Research upgrades First Solar (FSLR) to Outperform from Peer Perform
- HSBC downgrades Chevron (CVX) to Hold from Buy
- BMO Capital downgrades Enphase Energy (ENPH) to Underperform from Market Perform
- Barclays double downgrades Enphase Energy (ENPH) to Underweight from Overweight