Monday's Close

E-mini S&P 500 Futures (June): Settled at 4157.75, down 11.25

E-mini Nasdaq-100 Futures (June): Settled at 13,303.50, down 83.50

U.S. benchmarks digested Friday’s gains yesterday and now find themselves at an inflection point. The U.S. Dollar has legged to the lowest level since the February 25th reversal, powering commodities and risk assets once again. This would be the lowest close since the first trading week of the year for the U.S. Dollar Index. 

Strength across Asia, led by a 5.16% rebound in Taiwan, set an overnight tone for markets. With a favorable macro backdrop, retail giants are front and center. Both Home Depot and Walmart crushed top and bottom estimates. Each was classified as an essential business through pandemic lockdowns and, although those didn’t start until the back half of Q1 2020, this was a tailwind for sales. 

Still, each surged past those high watermarks; Walmart posted a +56% YoY in net sales and Home Depot +32.7%. Whereas Walmart raised guidance, Home Depot has not released an outlook for 2021, but spoke with an upbeat tone given the strong start to the year. The stocks were both up about 2% premarket.

Bill Baruch joined BNN Bloomberg yesterday to discuss travel stocks, crude, and gold.

Today’s economic calendar is overall quiet. Last night, GDP data from Japan underwhelmed. This morning, jobs data from the UK and GDP from the Eurozone were both broadly in line with expectations. 

U.S. Building Permits for April came due at 7:30 a.m. CT. Since hitting a high on May 10th, the price of lumber has fallen 23%. Pertaining to the housing sector, homebuilders, and the overall inflation theme, this is something to keep an eye on. (Disclosure: Blue Line Capital owns PulteGroup)

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