Traditional Markets

Stock traders are becoming ever pickier lately as yesterday’s action clearly demonstrates. The Dow Jones is now suffering from Trump’s proposed metal tariffs, which could weigh down on industrial companies. However, tech stocks, which don’t rely on any sort of imports are flying. 

Here we can see the Dow Jones Industrial Average (in white) against the tech-heavy Nasdaq Index (in green) over the last two weeks.

Yesterday ended with record highs for Apple, Microsoft, Square, and Nvidia, but unfortunately, none for Facebook.

Also on the minds of American investors, today will be the special elections in Pennsylvania’s 18th district. The race there is very close and it is seen as a bellwether that could end up having a heavy influence on the national stage come the mid-term elections in November.

However, whoever wins today will only serve until the end end of the year. As both sides have thrown millions of dollars of campaign money into this election, this may be the most over-hyped election the US has seen in a long while.

Inflation Data Today

No matter how big these small elections are, the main focus for traders today will be the CPI inflation data coming out at 12:30 GMT.

Please note: that the USA has shifted their clocks back an hour over the weekend. So for those of us trading from Europe remember that Wall Street’s opening and closing bells are one hour earlier than usual. Europe isn’t set to shift the clock until March 25th and Australia goes at the end of the month.

Last month’s inflation data came out way above analyst’s expectations at 0.5%. Today’s numbers are forecast for a more moderate 0.2% gain.

Any surprise to the upside has the potential to spark a panic in the stock markets because it would raise expectations of Fed tightening.

Crypto Regs in Focus

The prices of all the major coins seem to have stabilized after last week’s sell-off. On the charts, we can see the famous wedge pattern getting ever narrower on many different cryptos.