Morning Juice – US Session Prep

Morning Traders!
It is Thursday the 20th of February, here is what to look out for today.

Sentiment
US equities were set to fall slightly from their recent record highs as concerns over trade tariffs impacted on morale. Gold achieved a new all-time high.

Contracts for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 fell by around 0.2%.
Palantir was one of the worst losers in US premarket trade, on course to extend Wednesday’s 10% drop, after Defence Secretary Hegseth announced intentions to decrease military spending by 8% over the next few years.

Market fears have been fuelled in recent days by Trump’s vows to expand tariff measures to a wide range of industries, as well as his apparent withdrawal of support for Ukraine and its European allies.
Geopolitical uncertainties pushed gold prices past $2,954 per ounce, setting a new high.

The Dollar and Treasury yields fell after the Fed’s minutes indicated that policymakers had considered suspending or delaying their balance-sheet runoff.
The Yen rose by about 1%, exceeding 150 per Dollar, on speculation that the BoJ may hike interest rates sooner rather than later.

Docket
08:30 ET
US Weekly Jobless Claims
Initial Claims – Median Forecast: 215k | Prior: 213k | Range: 221k / 190k
Continued Claims – Median Forecast: 1.868M | Prior: 1.85M | Range: 1.9M / 1.848M

10:00 ET
Eurozone Consumer Confidence February Prelim
Median Forecast: -14 | Prior: -14.2 | Range: -13 / -15

11:30 ET
US sells $85 bln 4-Week Bills

12:00 ET
US Weekly EIA Crude Oil Inventories
Median Forecast: 3M | Prior: 4.07M | Range: 6.62M / 2M

13:00 ET
US sells $9 bln 30-Year TIPS

Speakers
09:35 ET
Fed’s Goolsbee speaks in a moderated Q&A at an event hosted by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
No text is expected, but there will be a Q&A.
Watch Live

11:00 ET
ECB’s Nagel speaks on panel at Karlsruhe Karlsruher Institute for Technology, Germany.

12:05 ET
Fed’s Musalem speaks to the Economic Club of New York about the US economy and monetary policy.
Text and Q&A are both expected.
(Registration for webinar costs $75)

14:30 ET
Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Barr talks about supervision and regulation at an event at Georgetown University Law Center.
Text and Q&A are both expected.

17:00 ET
Fed’s Kugler gives speech on “Navigating Inflation Waves While Riding on the Phillips Curve” at a lecture hosted by Georgetown University.
Text and Q&A are both expected.

Good luck!