Wall Street ended with no direction, with the S&P500 up 0.11% at 5,211, while the Dow Jones fell by the same amount to 39,127. The Nasdaq-100, which had turned the tide upwards from -0.25% to +0.5% at mid-session, lost all its advantage between 9.10 and 9.15pm, before finally clawing back 0.21% to 18,160.

The session was marked by Intel's unexpected fall (-8.2%) following the publication of a $7.1 billion loss in its foundry division (which, by contrast, is making the fortunes of ASML or TSMC... which suffered no damage from last night's 7.5 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan). Note that Micron climbed 4.3% and AMD gained 1.2%.

Little movement on the bond front: US T-Bonds are stretching at the margin by +1 basis point to 4.36% (after peaking at 4.43% around 3.30pm)... which, however, corresponds to the worst close since 27/11/2023.

On the figures front, the S&P Global composite PMI came in at 52.1, compared with 52.2 in the flash estimate and 52.5 in February. While manufacturing output rose at its fastest pace in almost two years, growth in services activity eased, with the PMI index falling from 52.3 to 51.7 month-on-month.

We'll have to keep a close eye on the impact of rising oil prices, which peaked at $86.2 before ending at $85.6 on the NYMEX, its highest score since 10/25/2023. Gold followed suit with a test of $2,300/Oz (all-time high), and silver ended at a two-year high of $27 (best close since March 8, 2022).

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