The geopolitical news feed had been relatively quiet today, and the tape was following a similar pattern. The S&P 500 opened slightly higher and was trading in a narrow 25 point range, with the equal-weight slightly lower and small caps lagging. The Russell 2000 opened 0.3% higher but immediately turned lower, falling as low as ~1% as Industrials, tech equipment and energy are under some pressure overall. The high-beta thematic groups all trading lower. The S&P began to fade following a CNN report that Iran was looking to impose new requirements on ships transiting the Strait, or risk attack, followed by comments that seemed to push against Trump's condition that Iran's uranium be sent to the US. Then the WSJ reported that the US was looking to restart Project Freedom after Saudi Arabia reversed their blocking of US access to bases. That sent equities to their lows as oil strengthened on the updates. The S&P is down 0.5% with the equal-weight closer to -1% and the Russell 2000 down 2%.

Tech is leading today but only because its flat while every other sector is lower. Fortinet's earnings are providing an uplift to the cyber names and combined with Datadog ripping higher, software overall is trading well. On the other hand the NYSE Semis index down 3% with the analog/power and memory names leading to the downside. Energy is the laggard today despite oil's reversal off its lows. The XLE ETF gapped down 2% at the open and fell further before turning back towards opening levels as oil moved up. Both Consumer Staples and Discretionary are slightly lower. There's a lot of large moves in both directions.

Jobless Claims this morning continued to remain at low levels and lead into tomorrow's non-farm payrolls. Treasury yields were lower earlier in the day (2y down 5bp) but have moved steadily higher and are now up 3-4bp across the curve. Oil was down around 5% before moving higher, currently down ~1% but off its highs of ~$102.50.