After an early session pop the market spent the rest of the waiting mired in low-volume chop as investors exercised caution ahead of pending inflation data.  Expect more of the same hurry-up-and-wait price action today with very little on the earnings and economic calendars to inspire the bulls or bears.  Plan for all the chop to change quickly depending on the reaction to the before-the-bell release of the CPI. We can not rule out a substantial gap up or down in reaction to the data so plan your risk carefully today.

While we slept Asian markets closed mixed with the NIKKEI leading the buying up .95% with Hong Kong and Shanghai selling off modestly.  European markets trade mostly lower with modest losses this morning as they wait on inflation data.  U.S. futures suggest a modestly lower open this morning facing another light day of data to inspire with the CPI report pending Wednesday morning.

Economic Calendar

Earnings Calendar

We have no notable earnings reports for this Tuesday. Those that are reporting are very small cap and low volume names.

News & Technicals’

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned on Monday that the U.S. economy, which is currently doing well, could face significant challenges in the future. He said that it would be a “huge mistake” to assume that the current consumer strength would translate into a booming environment for years. He cited several factors that could derail the economic recovery, such as the central banks tightening their monetary policies, the escalating war in Ukraine, and the excessive spending by governments around the world. He said that these factors could create uncertainty, volatility, and inflation, which could hurt the business and consumer confidence. He urged the policymakers to act responsibly and prudently to avoid a potential crisis. “To say the consumer is strong today, meaning you are going to have a booming environment for years, is a huge mistake,” Dimon said.

Oracle, the software giant, reported disappointing results for the fiscal first quarter, missing analysts’ expectations on license and hardware revenue. The company’s total revenue rose by 4% year-over-year to $9.73 billion, but fell short of the consensus estimate of $9.77 billion. The license revenue, which reflects the sales of new software products, declined by 8% to $813 million, while the hardware revenue, which includes the sales of servers and storage devices, dropped by 6% to $763 million. The company also issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the second quarter, projecting a revenue growth of 3% to 5%, below the analysts’ forecast of 5.3%. The company’s shares fell by more than 2% in after-hours trading following the earnings release.

Despite the disappointing results, Oracle highlighted its achievements and innovations in the quarter, such as launching new database hardware and artificial intelligence software features. The company unveiled the Oracle Database 23c, which it claimed to be the world’s first database with built-in machine-learning capabilities. The company also introduced the Oracle Exadata X9M, a new generation of database hardware that delivers up to 25 times faster performance than previous versions. The company said that these products would help it compete with rivals such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure in the cloud computing market. “We are confident that our cloud strategy and strong product portfolio will continue to drive our growth and profitability in the future,” said Safra Catz, Oracle’s CEO.

We kicked off a new week of trading with an early session surge that quickly faded with the remainder of the day mired in a low volume as traders ponder the pending CPI number out Wednesday morning.  TSLA was a bright shiny spot in the tech sector surging 10% after receiving an upgrade.  Unfortunately, we have another day to wait with little to nothing on earnings and the economic calendar to inspire.  One distraction could be the AAPL product release show that can at times provide some bullish or bearish action in tech gient.  Plan your risk carefully today because the release of the CPI number before the bell tomorrow could create a big market gap up or down depending on investor reaction.

Trade Wisely,

Doug