Trump: Open Hormuz Strait or Face Bombed Power Plants

Futures Rise, Oil Drops As Markets Ignore Latest Middle East Airstrikes Futures are higher (although off session highs), and oil erased overnight gains as the market moved past the latest Middle-East flare up which saw the US military strike 90 Iranian targets for a second day and Tehran retaliated against American allies in the Persian Gulf. And like during previous escalations, this time nobody believes it will last. As of 8:00am ET S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 contracts gained 0.6% as semiconductor stocks advanced in Asia, Europe...

Conference Board Consumer Expectations Hit YTD Highs, Inflation Fears Dip In May With war (and rising gas prices) now fully embedded in respondents' minds (along with record high stock prices), it is perhaps not entirely surprising that The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence dipped in May (but was better than expected). The headline index dipped 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, down from an upwardly revised 93.8 in April. The Present Situation Index - based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions - retreated by 3.2 points to 121.2. The Expectations Index -...