Indices: Back-to-back Losses as Tech and Banks Weigh on Sentiment- US equity index futures are steady following two consecutive red sessions, where the losses were larger for the S&P 500 (-0.5% to 6,926) and more so the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (-1.1% to 25,465) while the Dow 30 (-0.1% to 49,149) finished not far off where it started and the small-cap Russell 2000 (+0.7% to 2,651) outperformed avoiding a red finish; sentiment has been weighed down by renewed China-related restrictions hitting semiconductors and cybersecurity stocks, as well as financials following mixed bank earnings and policy uncertainty tied to proposed credit card rate reforms, keeping risk appetite subdued near record index levels; Treasury yields fall back, and market pricing (CME’s FedWatch) continues to stick (via majority) to June for a 25bp Fed rate cut and for two this year.Stocks: Tech, Banks, and Travel Stocks Under Pressure- Shares of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) (-1.4%) close lower as tech stocks lag the broader market; pressure followed Reuters reporting that Chinese customs authorities advised that Nvidia’s H200 chips are not permitted to enter China, weighing on the AI and semiconductor complex more broadly- Shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) (-2.4%), Meta (NASDAQ:META) (-2.5%), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) (-2.5%) all slide amid broader weakness in software and chip-linked names tied to China-related restrictions, with Oracle (-4.3%) underperforming as its being sued by bondholders over lack of a disclosure selling additional debt to build AI infrastructure- Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) (-2%) shares move on reports it is preparing an all-cash $72B bid for Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) (-0.8%)- Shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) finish 1.8% lower, CEO Musk via X says they’ll stop selling FSD a month from now and will only be available as a monthly subscription after, and a Bloomberg report cites buyers backing out of purchasing its imports into India- Travel stocks under pressure: Airbnb (-5.2%), Booking (-2.4%), Expedia (-3.1%) after an industry group reports fewer foreign travellers visited the U.S. last year; Trip.com (-17%) plunges after Reuters reports Chinese regulators are investigating the travel website- Rivian (-7.1%) slides after UBS downgrades the EV maker to sell citing high expectations on AI and the new R2 SUV- Biogen (-5%) plummets after warning of a pretax Q4 charge lowering net income; Intuitive Surgical (-2.7%) falls on lower-than-expected 2026 procedure forecasts despite stronger preliminary Q4 revenue- Meme stock movers: Beyond Meat (+1.6%), Kohl’s (-5.7%), GoPro (-1.4%), Krispy Kreme (-10.6%), Opendoor (-1.9%), AMC (-3.7%), BlackBerry (-1.5%), Nokia (-2.5%)- Crypto stocks track cryptocurrencies higher: Coinbase (+1.3%), MicroStrategy (+3.7%), Mara Holdings (+1.5%), Gemini Space Station (+3.3%), Bullish (+2.5%)- Earnings:o Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC): Q4 revenue misses ($21.29B vs. $21.65B est.) and net interest income also below estimates; shares fall 4.6%o Bank of America (NYSE:BAC): beats Q4 earnings (98c vs. 96c est.), revenue ($28.53B vs. $27.94B est.) and net interest income, yet shares fall 3.8%o Citigroup (NYSE:C): beats Q4 earnings ($1.81 vs. $1.67 est.) and revenue ($21B vs. $20.72B est.) but shares drop 3.3% by the closeCommodities: Volatile on All Fronts- Gold surged to a record $4.64K before falling back about 1% this morning as tensions ease a bit in the Middle East with traders noting updates there and in Greenland, with a massive pullback for silver undoing yesterday’s gains and falling back from $93+ record highs; gold/silver ratio finds small support off 50 after briefly breaking beneath it- Oil prices (WTI) fall back from $62+ highs to get beneath $60 breaking a five-day rally as easing fears of an imminent US military strike on Iran triggered a reversal; EIA’s weekly energy inventory estimates show builds for oil (+3.4m barrels) and gasoline (+9m) while distillate fell (-0.03m); OPEC in its Monthly Oil Market Report keeps ’26 world oil demand growth unchanged at 1.4m bpdFX/Central Banks/Crypto:- Bitcoin nearly reaches $98K before falling back below $96K as traders hope its previous mid-term resistance level will hold as support, Ether back beneath $3.3K a previous short-term resistance level- US Dollar Index sticks to the upper 98s, with volatility for USD/JPY falling back to the 158s amidst talk of potential intervention (see below)- Federal Reserve’s Kashkari emphasizes data-driven policy and that the Trump administration’s actions against the Fed are “really about monetary policy”, Goolsbee that central bank independence is the key to lower prices, Paulson that modest cuts likely appropriate later this year if forecasts are met, Bostic that inflation is still quite far from where we need to be, and Miran that deregulation should reduce pressure on prices and another reason for them to cut rates wanting 150bps worth this year- European Central Bank’s Kazaks that the central bank is in a good place with outlook risks on both sides, de Guindos that inflation is in a good place, and Villeroy that a budget deficit in France of more than 5% would be a danger zone for the country- Bank of England’s Taylor expects monetary policy to normalise at neutral sooner rather than later- Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara said they’ll take appropriate action to deal with excessive movements in FX, with similar comments made by both Finance Minister Katayama and currency diplomat MimuraCapital.com Client Sentiment:- Indices: Raise their long bias in U.S. indices that experienced a drop taking the S&P to extreme buy (79% from 75% yesterday), not far off it in the Dow (75%), bigger percentage buy jump in the Nasdaq (74% from 65%) as it underperformed, and fall out of heavy buy in the Russell (62% from 66%) as it had a green finish; elsewhere shifts from the middle in the DAX (to a majority buy 55%), and some longs opt to close out in the FTSE (59% from 61%) and ASX (87% from 89%) - Commodities: Heavy buy but falls a few notches in gold (72% from 75%) with a similar story in silver (73% from 75%) as some fresh longs opt to go for quick profit taking, and reaches extreme long in WTI (78% from 73%) following the pullback- FX: Shifts to the middle in USD/JPY (from a majority short 57%) following the pullback in price, with a shift in GBP/JPY (from a slight sell to a majority long 59%) for the same reasonData: Hotter PPI Headline and Retail Sales- U.S. PPI for November rises to 3% y/y for both headline and core hotter than anticipated, with PPI m/m 0.2% and Core PPI 0%, respectively; retail sales for the same month m/m 0.6% above forecast and so too excluding autos at 0.5%; Existing Home Sales for December stronger at 4.35M (vs 4.21M expected) up 5.1%; weekly mortgage applications up 0.3%.Today:- U.S. weekly unemployment claims, trade pricing data, Empire and Philly Fed’s manufacturing indices (5:30 pm Dubai time), FOMC members speako Earnings for Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock- UK GDP for November, industrial and manufacturing production (11 am); EZ industrial production (2 pm)