Happy Monday. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is once again the market's top story, as a report emerged Sunday night that the leader of the central bank was under criminal investigation as a result of the renovation of Fed buildings in Washington, D.C.
The bank's leader argued that this was political retaliation for not lowering interest rates, which tracks, seeing how President Donald Trump has pursued other members of Fed leadership and even teased that he might fire Powell. It's a considerable escalation in the President's attacks on central bank independence, which has garnered bipartisan backlash.
The news sent continuous futures in gold (+2.6%) and silver (+7.3%) to all-time highs, giving the metal moment even more time in the spotlight. Despite the fervor for save havens, the 10Y, 20Y, and 30Y were little-changed; so was he U.S. Dollar Index.
But despite the read in safe havens, equity investors seem to have mostly shrugged off the President's latest threats.
What started with a bout of early morning market turbulence has culminated in new intraday highs for all four U.S. equity benchmarks. The Nasdaq (+0.43%) is out in front, thanks to a boost from tech names The Russell 2000 (+0.34%), S&P 500 (+0.17%), and Dow (+0.07%) are also on the rise.
Instead, investors seem to be paying more attention to Apple tapping Google to add Gemini to Siri, Nvidia partnering with Eli Lilly on a new "AI lab" for drug discovery, and the looming Supreme Court decision on tariffs. All of that arrives today before the first major slate of Q4 earnings, which will kickstart the earnings season.
-- Noah Weidner
Monday reading:
