Markets Near High As Oil Falls

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Rob Black (0:11)

It's still early in the trading day. Things have reversed a bit from the opening. The opening was green. Now only the Russell 2000 and the NASDAQ remain in the green. The Russell 2000 is up one fourth, sorry, well not one fourth. 40 basis points, almost one half of one percent. And the NASDAQ is up one third of one percent, while the Dow has gone negative, down one half a percent. And the SP500 down fractions after being in the green. Gold is moving one quarter of one percent lower. Bitcoin is enjoying an up day, up 40 basis points. 364 bucks to 86,297.

Crude continues pulling back on geopolitical headline news. Taking a look at the Treasuries, the 10 year sits at 4.95. I guess under five right now feels like positive. I used to say over four and a half was a problem for stocks, but right now, maybe under five is okay for stocks. But that just goes to show you that things are less than a tailwind.

And sometimes these tailwinds are pretty close to being a headwind. 30 year Treasuries, it's at 5.29 percent. Taking a look at some of the headlines out there. Metas Muse, AI raises labor displacement fears. Monthly jobs reports will take on greater weight as AI displaces workers, though it's not all gloom and doom. Apollo Global Management Chief Economist Torsten Sluck said, I do think that it's a waiting game for this impact of AI to eventually begin to show up. On the one hand, yes, products such as Muse will indeed be saving maybe some jobs, but on the other hand, new products that are coming to the market because of AI will absolutely also be creating more employment. That's why it becomes not only a labor displacement story, but also what AI will do to business dynamics and ultimately therefore to aggregate employment. He is one of my favorite economists, Torsten Sluck. I quote him all the time.

There was a recent Gartner Survey projected that by 2029, 30 percent of employees will be laid off due to AI, will still need to be rehired at significantly higher costs than the original positions carried. Interesting times. California farmers are struggling to sell grapes. They say that this year's weather pattern is set up to be a wet one for California. Just to show you that I don't know everything, and sometimes when I don't, I like showing you. Can't pronounce pharmaceutical drug names for sure. But I have no clue about the effects of water in grapes, in any way, shape or form, or what global weather is going to do to global crops.

I try to stay in areas that I feel comfortable in, so that I don't give you bad information, ever, if at all possible. Intel stock is up 25 percent in the last five days on CPU demand as AI agents are gaining traction. Taking a look at some of the numbers, Apple hit an all-time high this morning. It's currently trading up $4.54 to $343.30.

Meta continues its impressive run up $9 to $750, up 1.2 percent. Nvidia is up a dollar.

Microsoft down seven. So that's kind of where we start seeing a little bit of the wheat in the chaff, if you will. Not all stocks are big. Oh, a big winner today is Sand Desk. Up $96 to $1,863. It's up 5.4 percent. Micron's up 3.2 percent. Let's get into some of the data as the NASDAQ hit an all-time high this morning at markets like the SP500 are really close.

Oil prices eased below $100 for another day after Iran reportedly offered to reopen Strait of Hormuz within seven days. This week, we're going to get a summit in Washington, DC between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. What's interesting to note here is that I think the populist opinion, the average man, doesn't want to see a Chinese president come in and be treated like a king with expensive dinner and our president toasting him.

We want our food prices lowered. We want our gas prices lowered. We want to stop saying, how much are we spending on this war? It's a very interesting clash. I would expect something gets done in the world of trade on this trip. Trump needs it as the midterms are nearing quickly.

So maybe some positive news comes out. I mean, you would expect that. I don't have anything that you don't know other than some analysts grumblings about possible outcomes.

There is no secret sauce here. Nvidia CEO said something hilarious.