Good morning. A stocks selloff rumbles through markets on interest-rate fears, Middle East tensions and mixed Chinese data. Hereâs whatâs mo [View in browser](
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Good morning. A stocks selloff rumbles through markets on interest-rate fears, Middle East tensions and mixed Chinese data. Hereâs whatâs moving markets. â [Sam Unsted]( Want to receive this newsletter in Spanish? [Sign up to get the Five Things: Spanish Edition newsletter](. Selloff spreads A selloff in stocks that started with a reversal for US equities on Monday â sending the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 down by more than 1% apiece â [has flowed through into Tuesday](. Benchmarks in Japan and Hong Kong slid and stocks are dropping across Europe, though US futures are only marginally lower heading into the session. Strategists at Citigroup said that stretched positioning in US stocks could mean a [âfaster and largerâ]( selloff to come. BlackRock, however, thinks stocks are [primed for a comeback](. Higher for longer The first driver of the stock slide â and of the [pressure on emerging-market currencies]( from the dollar â is angst over higher-for-longer interest rates in the US, which will come into focus later when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell takes part in a Q&A. Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco Fed, reiterated the view that there is [no urgency to cut rates]( given the solid economic growth, robust labor market and stubborn inflation in the US. UBS strategists even think the [Fed hiking rates]( further is a âreal risk.â Five other speakers from the Fed beyond Powell are scheduled for Tuesday, including Daly. Middle East tensions Tensions between Israel and Iran are also hitting sentiment in markets, with [Israel vowing a response]( to Iranâs weekend drone and missile attack even as officials in the US and Europe boost their push to avoid a tit-for-tat escalation between the pair. [Oil prices resumed]( their recent gains in response to Israelâs statement, but have since reversed, with Brent hovering around $90 per barrel. Chinaâs mixed outlook Mixed economic data from China has also added to the jitters causing the selloff. [Growth for the countryâs economy]( was ahead of expectations in the first quarter, yet much of this was driven by strength in the first two months of the year. Retail sales slumped and industrial output fell short of estimates in March, pointing to a tougher path ahead. A [decline in home sales]( isnât showing signs of abating either. Elsewhere, Chinese leader [Xi Jinping pushed back]( against pressure from Europe and the US to rein in the manufacturing industry. Coming Up⦠Earnings season continues to move into gear with Bank of America and Morgan Stanley to round out reporting from the big US banks. Johnson & Johnson, UnitedHealth and United Airlines are all reporting too. Elsewhere, International Paper [is merging with]( UK packaging peer DS Smith in a $7.2 billion deal, while UBS could face a [capital hit of up to $25 billion]( owing to reforms in Switzerland. Will earnings reports rescue the US stock rally? Will Nvidia deliver another set of amazing results and lift S&P 500? Or is it time to look away from big tech and buy dividend stocks, a buffer against potential market volatility? Share your views in the latest MLIV Pulse [survey](. What Weâve Been Reading This is whatâs caught our eye over the past 24 hours. - There is an [alternative to no alternative](, John Authers writes.
- [Yen traders]( brace for even more declines.
- The threat to electricity grids from [the AI boom](.
- Gold could get to [$3,000-an-ounce](, Citigroup predicts.
- A rundown of Trumpâs [34 felony charges](. And finally, here's what Joeâs interested in this morning Bloomberg reporter Matt Day had a [great piece]( yesterday looking at the steps Amazon had to take in order to build out the largest private network of EV charging stations in the country. In about two years, the company has built out 17,000 chargers located at 120 warehouses, in order to power the company's fleet of electrified Rivian delivery vans. One thing that stands out is that when these companies are dealing with electricity, there's a forced interfacing with legacy entities like the power utilities. There's no way to circumvent them, or build some parallel network. And that means dealing with a lot of messy complicated interactions. From the piece: To get there, Amazon had to learn how to pick up the phone and call the power company. Electric utilities, which to that point primarily dealt with electric vehicles through powering the odd home car charging setup, encountered a new type of customer in Amazon. Government electricity use estimates show a 100,000-square-foot warehouse tucked in an industrial area might be powered by about 50 kilowatts, mainly for lighting and air circulation. Setting up 100 chargers in the parking lot could require 10 to 20 times as much power. Perhaps more importantly, the piece instantly helps make clear why there's been such a persistent shortage of transformers and other electrical components. The fact of the matter is that they're being bought with a scale and pace we just weren't seeing up until very recently: In 2020, Amazon met with some of the countryâs large utilities, who probed the company on how much power it would need and where. Representatives of Commonwealth Edison, Illinoisâs largest power provider, were there. The utility, which was struggling to secure some types of new equipment during the pandemic, opted to repurpose old transformers for Amazon. âWe were doing some pretty creative stuff internally to make sure that we had what they needed and that we could meet the timelines that they wanted,â said Diana Sharpe, who deals with large customers at the Exelon Corp.-owned company. I've been writing about this the last few days, this scarcity of components, and the downstream effects this has on all different kinds of things from housing to commercial estate and everything else. It's implausible to imagine, say, 5 years ago, anyone coming to the utilities with surprise orders like this. Now there are numerous companies trying to go electric. There are multiple other companies building out private and public charging networks. And then there's all the other stuff getting built that all needs power. Hopefully more supply side capacity will become unlocked if demand persists. But it's pretty clear from stories like this, why the vendors of this gear are absolutely slammed. Follow Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal on X [@TheStalwart]( [Bloomberg Markets Wrap: The latest on what's moving global markets. Tap to read.]( Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before itâs here, itâs on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals canât find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Five Things to Start Your Day: Americas Edition newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox.
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