US STOCKS: Late Equities Roundup: Midrange Ahead Tariff Announcement
- Stocks are holding modestly higher levels in late trade, near mid-range for the session as markets await Pres Trump's reciprocal tariff announcement scheduled for 1600ET.
- Though several news outlets announced over the last couple days that Elon Musk would be stepping down from DOGE by the end of May, stocks extended gains through midday after Politico reported that Musk will step back from "governing partner" role in the next few weeks.
- Currently, the DJIA trades up 125.99 points (0.3%) at 42114.26, S&P E-Minis up 20.25 points (0.36%) at 5695.75, Nasdaq up 89.3 points (0.5%) at 17539.26.
- Consumer Discretionary and Financial sectors outperformed in the second half, Caesars Entertainment +4.91%, , Tesla +4.40%, CarMax +4.17% and DoorDash +3.62% buoyed the Consumer Discretionary sector.
- Banks and services supported the Financial's sector with Discover Financial Services +3.28%, Invesco +2.86%, Synchrony Financial +2.80%, Blackstone +2.61% and Capital One Financial +2.23%.
- Consumer Staples and Communication Services sectors underperformed in late trade with Altria Group -4.29%, Mondelez International -2.65%, Hershey -2.54% and Philip Morris International -1.75% weighing on the former.
- Meanwhile, telecom stocks weighed on the Communication Services sector: T-Mobile -1.89%, Verizon Communications -1.59%, AT&T -1.18% and Comcast Corp -1.08%.
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US: FED Reverse Repo Operation
RRP usage retreats by nearly 50% to $119.987B from $234.442B on Friday's month end. Compares to $58.770B (lowest level since mid-April 2021) on February 14. The number of counterparties falls to 32 from 50 prior.
US: Trump To Make "Investment Announcement" Shortly
US President Donald Trump is shortly due to make an “investment announcement” at the White House. LIVESTREAM
- Trump is expected to announce a USD$100 billion investment from TSMC. See earlier bullet: US: Trump To Announce $100B TSMC Investment
- Trump has previously appeared alongside CEOs of SoftBank, OpenAI, Apple, and DAMAC to announce private investment projects, touting them as wins for his administration’s business-friendly policies.
- Trump may also highlight a recent decision by Honda to make its next Civic hybrid vehicle in the US rather than Mexico, with Reuters noting, “the move to make the model in the US would avoid potential tariffs on one of its top-selling car models.”
GBPUSD TECHS: Monitoring Support
- RES 4: 1.2880 2.0% 10-dma envelope
- RES 3: 1.2811 High Dec 6 ‘24
- RES 2: 1.2767 50.0% retracement of the Sep 26 ‘24 - Jan 13 bear leg
- RES 1: 1.2716 High Feb 26
- PRICE: 1.2710 @ 16:23 GMT Mar 3
- SUP 1: 1.2538 50-day EMA
- SUP 2: 1.2440 Low Feb 13
- SUP 3: 1.2333 Low Feb 11 and a key support
- SUP 4: 1.2249 Low Feb 3
A bullish trend condition in GBPUSD remains intact - for now - and this suggests the latest pullback is likely a correction. Note that moving average studies have recently crossed into a bull-mode position, highlighting a potentially stronger bull cycle. Initial firm support to watch is 1.2538, the 50-day EMA. A resumption of gains would open 1.2767, the 50.0% retracement of the Sep 26 ‘24 - Jan 13 bear leg.
