By Mike Dolan
-What matters in U.S. and global markets today
By Mike Dolan, Editor-At-Large, Finance and Markets
As U.S. stock indexes hit new records on Monday ahead of a likely Federal Reserve interest rate cut and megacap earnings later this week, gold’s retreat deepened – extending back below $4,000 per ounce and now down more than 10% from this month’s peak.
I’ll get into all the market-moving news below.
In today’s column, I discuss the possible end to the Fed’s balance sheet rundown at this week’s policy meeting and whether it matters more broadly beyond the runes of money market plumbing.
Today’s Market Minute
* U.S. President Donald Trump lavished praise on Japan’sfirst female leader Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Tuesday,welcoming her pledge to accelerate a military buildup andsigning deals on trade and rare earths. * Amazon said on Tuesday it will reduce its corporateworkforce by about 14,000 roles, as the tech giant cuts down onoperational layers to limit costs amid ballooning investments inartificial intelligence. * Most of Trump family’s business empire is privately held,so calculating a reliable estimate of the Trump Organization’scrypto earnings required some sleuthing. So Reuters did aninvestigation. * The United States and China appear to have hammered outthe framework of a trade deal in advance of Presidents DonaldTrump and Xi Jinping’s meeting this week. Many investors havewelcomed the news, but, writes ROI markets columnist JamieMcGeever, this is far from a game changer. * Saudi Arabia is caught between Donald Trump and a hardplace, as the U.S. president’s latest oil sanctions on Russiaforce Riyadh to weigh competing geopolitical and economicpriorities. Read the latest from ROI energy columnist RonBousso.
Gold sold, stocks stall
Although stock market optimism was aided by hopes for a breakthrough in U.S.-China trade talks at Thursday’s planned summit in South Korea, the latest runup in U.S. stocks was once again driven by AI chip excitement and another upbeat series of business surveys home and abroad.
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