Equities are off their highs but holding in the green in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, or maybe holding back until the USA v Venezuela game tonight and Fed meeting tomorrow. The S&P 500 is trading a bit above its intraday lows, up ~0.4% after seeing earlier gains of ~1%. The equal-weight is outperforming, as are Mid and Small caps. Mega caps are mixed.

All sectors are higher outside of Healthcare, weighed down by some Lilly weakness. Energy is leading along with Financials. Credit is doing a lot of work for Financials today with most names higher, including Blue Owl and Apollo (+5%). Discretionary is outperforming with broad strength in Travel/Leisure. Discretionary vs Staples is showing some bounce back after declining last week. Real Estate is also a leader as treasuries firm up again and yields tick lower. Speaking of bounces, Software is outperforming Semis by about 1% (IGV +1%, ICE Semis Index flat). Numerous announcements out of Nvidia’s GTC conference continue to hit the tape, highlighting partnerships across industries and adding further confidence to the momentum/stickiness of AI spending. Remember yesterday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang noted he expects orders for the company’s GPUs to reach $1 trillion through 2027, or 10x Dr Evil’s demands 30 years ago in 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

Brent crude is up 2%, trading around the middle of its intraday range $101-$105. Crude came off its lows just before noon after Trump posted that “we no longer “need” or desire the NATO Countries’ assistance -- WE NEVER DID!” Metals are mixed, with gold about flat, silver and copper down modestly while platinum and palladium are higher. After falling below it last week, copper has been unable to regain its 50d ma. Bitcoin and Ether are modestly lower after yesterday’s strength, which saw Bitcoin inch closer to its 50d ma ~$77k. Ag is mixed but soy is slightly higher after sharply selling off yesterday on news the Trump-Xi meeting could be delayed.