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US equity futures are mixed this morning. The Dow looks to open lower due to a 7% decline in Amgen (AMGN) after the company reported disappointing data related to its weight loss treatment. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures are firmly in the green, but the Russell 2000 is indicated to open slightly lower after missing a record close yesterday by less than a point.

Treasury yields have barely budged from yesterday’s levels, crude oil is up less than 1% but below $70 per barrel, and gold is modestly higher. In a sign that some of the froth may be settling in the market, Bitcoin is down 3% this morning and trading near $92K after trading just under $99K yesterday. MicroStrategy (MSTR) calls its stock a leveraged play on Bitcoin, and that’s been the case both up and down. After trading as high as $543 per share on Friday, the stock is trading down near $380 this morning for a 30% decline. That’s a big move for a company that briefly had a market cap of over $100 billion last week!

Overnight, most major benchmarks were modestly lower in Asia, likely in at least part due to President-elect Trump’s statement that he would levy an additional 10% tariff on all goods imported from China. Europe was left out of the latest tariff talk, but stocks in the region are also lower across the board with modest gains as the STOXX trades down 0.4%.

Circling back to the US, it’s been a relatively busy morning for earnings, especially from retailers. Of the ten companies reporting, six topped EPS forecasts, seven beat sales forecasts, but two – Best Buy (BBY) and Kohl’s (KSS) – lowered guidance. Those two stocks are being punished accordingly with the former down over 7% and KSS down more than 15%. While the drop in KSS is large, in May it fell nearly 23% in reaction to earnings.

With Americans starting to get on the road for Thanksgiving today and tomorrow, one thing to be thankful for is lower pump prices. According to AAA, the national average price of a gallon of gas is just $3.067 per gallon. Over the weekend, it was as low as $3.056 which was the lowest national average price since June 2021 and nearly $2 below the peak from June 2022.

While the national average is still above $3 per gallon, just over half of US states have a national average below $3 per gallon, including Oklahoma which has the lowest average price at just over $2.50 per gallon. Nothing wrong with that!

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