S&P 500 Index futures fall 0.5% as of 7:50 a.m. in New York as traders await President Donald Trump’s Tuesday evening deadline for Iran to make a peace deal. Nasdaq 100 futures decline 0.6% Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fall 0.4% The MSCI World Index is little changed Here are some of the biggest US movers before the bell: Magnificent Seven stocks: Alphabet (GOOGL) -0.06%, Amazon (AMZN) -0....
S&P 500 Index futures fall 0.5% as of 7:50 a.m. in New York as traders await President Donald Trump’s Tuesday evening deadline for Iran to make a peace deal. Nasdaq 100 futures decline 0.6% Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fall 0.4% The MSCI World Index is little changed Here are some of the biggest US movers before the bell: Magnificent Seven stocks: Alphabet (GOOGL) -0.06%, Amazon (AMZN) -0.4%, Meta Platforms (META) -0.6%, Microsoft (MSFT) -0.4%, Tesla (TSLA) -1.3%, Nvidia (NVDA) -1.2%, Apple (AAPL) -1% Managed care companies including Humana gain after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized a 2.48% rate hike for health insurers in 2027. Investors see the pay boost as a meaningful improvement over the initial rates the agency proposed in January. Humana (HUM) rises 9% and CVS Health gains 6%. Broadcom (AVGO) rises 3% after the chipmaker announced a long-term agreement with Google to develop and supply Tensor Processing Units. The companies also confirmed plans to work with Anthropic to power the AI startup’s burgeoning operations. Estée Lauder (EL) slips 1% after Spanish newspaper Expansion reported that the the company and Puig owning families are set to hold talks this week in New York over their potential merger. Organogenesis Holdings Inc. (ORGO) rises 19% after the company said a randomized controlled trial of 170 patients in a diabetic foot ulcer trial achieved its primary endpoint. Wingstop (WING) rises 1.9% as Citi upgrades the fried chicken restaurant operator to buy, saying the valuation offers an attractive entry point.
aprott/iStock via Getty Images The dollar ( DXY ) is mostly narrowly mixed against the G10 currencies. Leaving aside the Swedish krona, which has fallen nearly 0.75% on the back of an unexpected soft March CPI, the other G10 currencies are +/- less than 0.2%. Investors remain on edge ahead of the US ultimatum deadline, which is in the Asia-Pacific session today. There are mixed reports on how clos...
aprott/iStock via Getty Images The dollar ( DXY ) is mostly narrowly mixed against the G10 currencies. Leaving aside the Swedish krona, which has fallen nearly 0.75% on the back of an unexpected soft March CPI, the other G10 currencies are +/- less than 0.2%. Investors remain on edge ahead of the US ultimatum deadline, which is in the Asia-Pacific session today. There are mixed reports on how close the two sides are to a deal. It still seems binary, with a ceasefire being good for risk assets and an escalation, of course, not so much. News has been light. Most of the final March PMIs were revised lower from the initial readings, though counterintuitively, the eurozone was an exception. China’s restraint remains notable. The PBOC set the dollar’s reference rate today at its lowest level since April 2023. Investors remain focused on the Middle East developments. Prices G10 • The euro reached slightly above $1.1570 in North America yesterday as hope of a ceasefire in the Middle East war seemed to peak. It made a marginal new high in European turnover today but stalled shy of $1.1580. It had been sold to about $1.1525 initially in the Asia-Pacific session. • The dollar closed little changed against the Japanese yen yesterday. The technical implication of the outside day was muted by settlement that was within the pre-weekend range. After initially falling to JPY159.30 late in the Asia-Pacific session, the greenback returned to the session high, slightly above JPY159.80, but it met sellers as if they were content to take profits in front of JPY160. In local trading today, the greenback edged a little closer to JPY160 before it was turned back to around JPY159.50. The JPY160 area remains of psychological importance, and options for about $775 mln at JPY160 expire today and another $750 mln of options at JPY160.25 also expire. • Sterling traded on both sides of last Friday’s range (~$1.3190-1.3245) yesterday, but the close was within that range, and that neutralized the te...
The UK government signaled it won’t let the US use British military bases for strikes on Iranian energy or civilian infrastructure after President Donald Trump threatened an escalation of operations against Tehran. Asked Tuesday about Trump’s threat to bomb the Islamic republic’s bridges and power plants if Iran doesn’t agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Prime Minister Keir Starmer ’s spokesman...
The UK government signaled it won’t let the US use British military bases for strikes on Iranian energy or civilian infrastructure after President Donald Trump threatened an escalation of operations against Tehran. Asked Tuesday about Trump’s threat to bomb the Islamic republic’s bridges and power plants if Iran doesn’t agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Prime Minister Keir Starmer ’s spokesman Tom Wells pointed to Britain’s position since the early days of the war that the US could only use its bases at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for what the UK government has called “defensive” missions. “Our principles have been clear from day one,” Wells said. “Our position on this hasn’t changed.” He declined to say whether the UK would consider the destruction of civilian infrastructure by the US as a war crime. Wells’ remarks highlight the diplomatic tightrope Starmer’s Labour administration is walking as it seeks to allow its bases to be used in defense of British interests and allies while maintaining a position — reiterated Tuesday by the premier’s spokesman — that “this is not our war.” The government has published a summary of legal advice arguing that granting American basing requests for defensive operations is in line with Britain’s commitments to international law. However, it can be a war crime to target civilian infrastructure because doing so can punish noncombatants. Trump has threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages, where they belong” if it doesn’t agree a deal with the US, including “blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants.” “The agreement in place is for the US to use UK bases for the collective self-defense of the region, including US defensive operations to degrade missile sites and capabilities used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz,” Wells said. Read more: Why Trump’s Iran Threats Raise War Crime Concerns: Explainer Starmer’s initial refusal to approv...
Tehran’s decision to let Malaysia-linked vessels through the Strait of Hormuz highlighted Iran’s growing use of access to the strategic waterway as leverage, analysts said, with only a limited number of ships now able to pass and access increasingly determined by political ties rather than treated as a neutral commercial right. For Malaysia, the move drew attention not only to Tehran’s close ties ...
Tehran’s decision to let Malaysia-linked vessels through the Strait of Hormuz highlighted Iran’s growing use of access to the strategic waterway as leverage, analysts said, with only a limited number of ships now able to pass and access increasingly determined by political ties rather than treated as a neutral commercial right. For Malaysia, the move drew attention not only to Tehran’s close ties with Putrajaya but also to scrutiny surrounding sanction-sensitive oil trade and ship-to-ship...
"The Pulse With Francine Lacqua" is all about conversations with high profile guests in the beating heart of global business, economics, finance and politics. Based in London, we go wherever the story is, bringing you exclusive interviews and market-moving scoops. Today's guests: Wolf von Rotberg, J Safra Sarasin, Equity Strategist; Azadeh Zamirirad, German Institute for International and Security...
"The Pulse With Francine Lacqua" is all about conversations with high profile guests in the beating heart of global business, economics, finance and politics. Based in London, we go wherever the story is, bringing you exclusive interviews and market-moving scoops. Today's guests: Wolf von Rotberg, J Safra Sarasin, Equity Strategist; Azadeh Zamirirad, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Africa and Middle East Research Head. (Source: Bloomberg)
The Reform leader cynically pushes the boundaries of how far he can go without alienating too many of the voters he needs – but it’s a perilous calibration What counts as beyond the pale these days? Having successfully pushed back the cordon sanitaire that surrounds British politics, Nigel Farage is struggling to work out where, precisely, it now lies. Some decisions are simple. Attacks on Grenfel...
The Reform leader cynically pushes the boundaries of how far he can go without alienating too many of the voters he needs – but it’s a perilous calibration What counts as beyond the pale these days? Having successfully pushed back the cordon sanitaire that surrounds British politics, Nigel Farage is struggling to work out where, precisely, it now lies. Some decisions are simple. Attacks on Grenfell victims are, and have always been, beyond the bounds of decency. Farage promptly sacked Simon Dudley last week after the housing spokesperson mused of the victims that “everyone dies in the end”. But on other choices Farage dithers. Not wishing to sound prudish to his more hard-boiled supporters, he previously dismissed accusations he was racist at school as “banter in the playground”. It was only in January that he did what any other mainstream politician would do with likely unprovable claims of racism and denied them completely. Martha Gill writes about politics and culture Continue reading...