It looked good for a while yesterday, didn’t it? But as we all know, the market couldn’t hang on to its gains and rolled over into the close. Stocks started off on a weak note again today as well – with the S&P 500 on track for its worst week in 2023.
Treasury prices are a bit lower, too. Gold and silver are flattish along with the dollar.
The big story is in crude oil, though. Prices spiked in the early morning hours after Russia said it would cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March. That was a rare move outside of its alliance with OPEC and widely seen as retaliation against Western sanctions. Oil was trading around $79 at last check.
Meanwhile, the U.S. may tighten tech sanctions on China in retaliation for the spy balloon incident. Reports suggest an additional six Chinese companies may end up on the Commerce Department’s list of firms restricted from doing business with U.S. companies.
In the Middle East, the death toll from the recent earthquake has topped 22,000 in Turkey and Syria. That makes this the worst quake to hit Turkey since 1939.
On the corporate front, Lyft Inc. (LYFT) couldn’t manage the same kind of good earnings news that Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) delivered. The stock got hammered to the tune of 35% after forecasting disappointing profit. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is following through with its projected 10,000 job cuts, laying off workers in its Surface and Xbox divisions, among others.
