PIPELINE: Corporate Bond Update

Tsy futures remain supported - but off session highs after huge (50k each) TYH6 & FVH6 sales, curves flatter ahead of the $58B 3Y note auction (91282CQA2) at 1300ET, WI is currently at 3.514%, 9.5bp rich to last month's sale. Results will be available shortly after the competitive auctions closes at 1300ET.

• January auction recap: Treasury futures held modestly weaker (TUH6 104-07.25, -.25, 1TYH6 -3 at 112-04) after the $58B 3Y note auction (91282CPT2) drew 3.609% high yield vs. 3.610% WI; bid-to-cover held steady at 2.65x.
• Peripheral stats: Indirect take-up retreated to 56.50% vs. 71.97% prior; direct bidder take-up at 29.5% from 19.0% prior; primary dealer take-up 14.0% vs. 9.03% prior.

• SPX emini and Nasdaq indexes are trading near steady to mildly higher Tuesday, while the DJIA climbs to a new record high of 50,512.79 early in the first half before scaling back support ahead midday.
• Currently, the DJIA trades up 271.38 points (0.54%) at 50407.17, S&P E-Mini Futures up 9 points (0.13%) at 6992.75, Nasdaq up 1.4 points (0%) at 23242.44.
• Utilities and Consumer Discretionary sector shares led advances in the first half: Vistra Corp gained +3.89% after upgrades from Goldman Sachs and Jefferies, Dominion Energy +1.91%. Sempra +1.87% and Eversource Energy +1.81%.
• Mostly travel related shares buoyed the Consumer Discretionary sector in the first half: Marriott International +9.21%, Hasbro Inc +6.93%, Lululemon Athletica +4.84%, Norwegian Cruise Line +4.64% and Expedia Group +3.96%.
• Meanwhile, a mix of IT & Financial Services sector shares underperformed: Western Digital -7.76%, Raymond James Financial -6.82%, Incyte Corp -6.48%, Charles Schwab -6.41%, Moody's Corp v-6.24%, Seagate Technology -5.74% and Monolithic Power Systems -5.48%.

As anticipated after weak retail sales data, the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow estimate for Q4 real GDP growth has fallen to 3.7% Q/Q SAAR from 4.2% in its latest update Tuesday. That's still very strong, but below the 4.4% in Q3 and the 3.8% in Q2, and comes with some caveats.

• Real PCE is now seen growing just 2.4% Q/Q SAAR, vs 3.1% in the previous estimate, a notable slowdown from 3.5% in Q3 and about level with the 2.5% in Q2.
• It makes for the lowest Q4 GDP estimate since the nowcast started in late December, and well down from the peak of 5.4% as of late January. That had been boosted largely by outsized net export contributions but that has since been pared by subsequent data.
• When excluding volatile net exports and inventories (both of whose contributions were revised down slightly today on the latest data), GDP is implied to have grown at 2.3% Q/Q SAAR in Q4, still solid but below the 2.9% implied by the same methodology in GDPNow in Q3.
• We get the official Q4 GDP reading on February 20.