Good morning and Happy Friday. As we await a potential tariff decision from SCOTUS, S&P futures are trading higher, stepping up to their best levels following a seemingly goldilocks monthly payroll report, at least on the headline numbers. Yields were up about 2bp across the curve but came in slightly after a longer look at the data. Nonfarm payrolls rose 50k in December, a bit below last month and expectations but not enough to create greater concern about deteriorating conditions. And on the other hand, it certainly wasn’t a robust print. Helping matters was a lower unemployment rate (4.4% vs. 4.5% prior) but that came at the expense of a slightly lower participation rate. The underlying data, however, paints a less sanguine picture. Health care and social assistance, leisure and hospitality drove the increase (+86k). Goods-producing jobs declined 21k (construction/manufacturing -19k). Retail trade fell 25k.

A few headlines that are generating interest: Yesterday, after previously announcing his desire to limit investor ownership of single-family homes, President Trump said he ordered “representatives” (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to buy $200B of mortgage-backed securities to help bring down home ownership costs. Meta announced agreements for up to 6.6GW of nuclear energy by 2035. Nuclear-related names are trading higher. A story in the Nikkei highlighted the incredibly tight supply dynamics in the memory chip market, including surging prices and increasing dearth of general-purpose memory for PCs and smartphones as suppliers allocate to more lucrative AI segments.

In commodities, Brent is adding to yesterday’s gains while US gas continues its decline. Metals are bouncing back with silver, palladium and cooper leading the way. Rio-Tinto confirmed its having preliminary discussions with Glencore over a potential merger, and President Trump is scheduled to meet with oil executives today to discuss Venezuela. Ag is mostly lower. Crypto is as well with Bitcoin and Ethereum down ~1%.