US equities opened modestly higher as the pace of earnings picked up from yesterday and investors digested solid Retail Sales data. Equities began to come in around gloomy updates from trading and shipping giants Maersk and Trafigura. Maersk issued a Middle East Operations Update saying “transit through the Strait should be avoided” and Trafigura’s CEO said it has nine ships stuck in the waterway. Equities fell further after Pakistan said they were still awaiting Iran’s confirmation to attend peace meetings, and VP Vance was confirmed to have not left for the meetings. Then came the headlines that the process is paused with Iran’s leadership divided, followed by a lot more that didn't add any clarity.

The S&P 500 fell below 7100 but is bouncing off its lows. Brent crude rallied from $95 to $100 but is pulling back from that level. The S&P equal-weight is around inline while small caps are lagging a bit. Energy is leading on oil’s reversal higher. Real Estate and Utilities are down as yields back up. Industrials are lagging as well with defense and aerospace names getting hit in particular following earnings from GE and NOC, along with airlines. The Materials sector is also down as chemicals names trade lower and gold/copper miners fall alongside the metals. Tech is around unchanged. The ICE Semis Index and IGV software ETF are both higher. Apple was trading only slightly lower on the official announcement that that CEO Tim Cook would be succeeded by John Ternus- a well-telegraphed move- but weakened a bit further, weighing on the sector.

The other significant event today was Kevin Warsh’s Senate confirmation hearing. Amidst the usual grandstanding, the Fed chair nominee said President Trump did not make him promise to cut rates. He also discussed overhauling various Fed protocols and measurements, including inflation methodologies and said of inflation, “the trajectory is improving but there’s more work to do.” Precious metals are under some selling pressure. Gold’s decline picked up steam after the Open and during Kevin Warsh’s Senate hearing. Metals are mixed with both gold and silver modestly lower. Ag is also mostly higher. Crypto has pulled back from the overnight highs with Bitcoin hovering ~$76k and Ethereum ~$2.3k.