Welcome back,

It’s a flurry of central bank announcements this week, ahead of key speeches from US Fed Chair Powell and ECB President Lagarde. As bonus, we’ll get policy decisions from Japan, Australia and Canada. 

Let’s keep it concise.

Market Headlines 👀

• SoftBank's Arm aims to raise at least $8 billion in US IPO

• Amazon (AMZN) is closing its cashierless stores in NYC, San Francisco and Seattle

• Apple’s (AAPL) Cloud Chief Abbott to step down in April

• Meta (META) cuts the price of its Quest headset up to 33% after disappointing demand

• Twitter (TWTR) hires Igor Babuschkin and Manuel Kroiss, who both formerly worked at Google’s DeepMind AI unit, to develop an alternative to ChatGPT

• Tesla (TSLA) cuts U.S. Model S and Model X prices between 4% and 9%

• Apple (AAPL) readies its next range of laptops and desktops, including a long-awaited iMac

• Former top Credit Suisse (CS) shareholder, Harris Associates, sells out of bank

• Goldman Sachs (GS) US head of equities trading, Joe Montesano, is leaving the firm

• Microsoft (MSFT) brings an AI-powered Copilot to its business app suite

• JetBlue (JBLU) and Spirit (SAVE) brace for DOJ lawsuit to block airlines’ merger

• CrowdStrike (CRWD) and Dell (DELL) to partner on commercial PC cybersecurity

• Saudi Arabia deposits $5B in Turkey’s central bank to help its struggling economy

• Morgan Stanley’s (MS) Michael Wilson, known for being one of Wall Street’s most bearish strategists, expects stocks to rally in the short term

Earnings 💸

Nothing notable to see here today, folks. Tune back in tomorrow for earnings from Sea (SE), Dick’s (DKS), Squarespace (SQSP) and CrowdStrike (CRWD).

Recap Around the Street 🧠

Central banks take center stage this week, beginning with Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday. He is expected to be quizzed on whether larger hikes are needed. Because Powell's testimony comes before the payrolls and inflation numbers, he is likely to avoid committing to a policy path.

But the Fed is hardly alone in rate decisions this week:

• European Central Bank (ECB) President Lagarde is set to speak, with most expecting a confirmation of a 50 basis points raise in rates this month.

• Australia's central bank is expected to lift its rates by 25 basis points on Tuesday.

• The Bank of Canada is expected to continue to raise rates at a record pace of 425 basis points in 10 months.

• Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kuroda has his final policy meeting for before retirement on Friday, and all eyes are on the fate of its yield curve control tool.

Stock traders are ignoring alarms across the bond market. Despite their record-setting performance in recent weeks, bonds are starting to see a comeback from stocks already. The S&P 500 bounced back on Friday after falling near its 200-day moving average.

Even though rates on 2- and 10-year Treasuries were up a sixth straight week, stock investors were barely fazed. That’s because benchmark US share indexes just posted their biggest runup in a month. The stock market then climaxed on Friday when a jump in the Nasdaq 100 topped any since early February.

Bond yields rising could create complications for low-rated companies who had just started to enjoy easier access to credit. The sharp rise in yields last year has made bonds far more attractive investment opportunities. But, many bonds carry elevated risk due to the credit cycle and the potential for a rebound in inflation.

As inflation showed signs of easing early this year, investors bet that the Fed might pivot quickly to slashing interest rates. That increased demand for bonds, driving down yields on new and existing corporate debt. If economic conditions tighten and harm corporate balance sheets, bonds could suffer downgrades or elevated default risks.

The CHIPS Act is gaining nationwide attention. Led by US Commerce secretary and former Rhode Island governor, Gina Raimondo, the Act is part of the Biden administration’s high-priority effort to out-pace China in a key sector: Semiconductor chips.

Raimondo’s sales pitch is simple: Making chips is core to US national security. As a result, tech manufacturers across the country are rushing to apply for some of the $49B in funds that the Act makes available to incentivize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research.

In case you’re just tuning in, here’s a recap of last week from @rhemrajani9:

Market Preview 🎞️

• Monday: US factory orders, durable goods

• Tuesday: US wholesale inventories, consumer credit, Fed Chair Powell begins semiannual testimony, Australia rate decision

• Tuesday: Sea (SE), Dick’s (DKS), Squarespace (SQSP) & CrowdStrike (CRWD) earnings

• Wednesday: Eurozone GDP, US MBA mortgage applications, ADP employment change, trade balance, JOLTS job openings, Canada rate decision, EIA crude oil inventories

• Wednesday: MongoDB (MDB) & Asana (ASAN) earnings

• Thursday: US Challenger job cuts, initial jobless claims, household change in net worth, China CPI & PPI

• Thursday: JD.Com (JD), BJ’s (BJ), Ulta Beauty (ULTA), DocuSign (DOCU) & Oracle (ORCL) earnings

• Friday: US nonfarm payrolls, unemployment rate, monthly budget statement, Bank of Japan policy rate decision, Apple (AAPL) annual shareholder meeting

Set a reminder to tune into our next Twitter Spaces March 13th at 3PM EST. We’ll be previewing the CPI release and its macroeconomic implications, featuring a slate of speakers you won’t want to miss.

That’s all for today, folks! We’ll be back around the same time tomorrow with a curated list of important news, economic data and market highlights. 

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