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The stock market started the week with a largely uneventful sideways Monday session that gave way to a late slide.
This morning is setting up for a modestly lower start, as futures on the S&P 500 trade about five points below fair value after a night that saw weakness in global equity markets.
President Trump made a couple tariff-related remarks last night, threatening to impose additional tariffs on exports from countries that have digital service taxes. He also warned that a 200% tariff on imports from China could be imposed if China does not accelerate exports of rare-earth magnets.
The president wasn't done there, as he also fired Fed Governor Cook amid an investigation into mortgage fraud. However, Ms. Cook insists that she will not leave her post.
Yesterday's economic data was limited to an above-consensus New Home Sales report. This morning, the market already received the Durable Orders report for July while the June FHFA Housing Price Index (Briefing.com consensus -0.1%; prior -0.2%) and June S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index (Briefing.com consensus 2.8%; prior 2.8%) will be reported shortly. The day's data slate will be capped with a 10:00 ET release of the Consumer Confidence report for August (Briefing.com consensus 96.3; prior 97.2).
The Durable Orders report was pretty good all things considered. Granted, the headline reading decreased 2.8%, but that was entirely due to weakness in orders for aircraft and defense capital goods. More notably, nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft—a proxy for business investment—increased 1.1% in July after falling 0.6% in June, making this a generally positive report.
Treasuries are mixed with the 2-yr note holding a slight gain while the long bond lags ahead of today's $69 bln 2-yr note sale. The 10-yr yield is up one basis point at 4.28%.