OPENING CALL

Stock futures were falling on Tuesday as investors struggled to make up their minds about what escalating trade tensions would mean for markets.

Trump said Monday that levies on imports from Canada and Mexico would proceed on schedule, with investors wary that his administration's tough tariff talk and federal job cut program were damaging business and household confidence.

Bond yields continued to retreat, as worries about a slowing economy encouraged a move into the perceived safety of government debt.

With inflation proving sticky of late, investors fear the Federal Reserve may be less able to cut borrowing costs to revive growth.

Earnings from Home Depot due before the bell could shed more light on the state of the economy.

Stocks to Watch

Cleveland-Cliffs reported a fourth-quarter adjusted loss of 68 cents a share, wider than Wall Street estimates. The stock declined 3.3%.

Chegg is conducting a review of its business and exploring alternatives, including a sale or privatization. Shares declined 22%

Coinbase Global fell 5%; MicroStrategy, which is now doing business as Strategy, dropped 6.4%; and Robinhood Markets fell 6.1% as the crypto-related stocks followed Bitcoin lower.

Shares at Hims & Hers Health were down 9%, extending losses from last week after the Food and Drug Administration determined that a shortage of popular weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic had been resolved.

Nvidia was down 1.1% after a report from Bloomberg said some officials in the Trump administration aimed to place further restrictions on the type of Nvidia chips that can be exported to China without a license.

Shares of Palantir Technologies were falling 2.5% amid investor concern over whether cuts to U.S. defense spending could affect earnings.

Super Micro Computer has until Tuesday to file accounts or risk being delisted by the Nasdaq stock exchange. Shares were down 3.5%.

Tempus AI posted a fourth-quarter loss of $13 million, narrower than its year-earlier loss of $50.5 million. Shares fell 17%.

Wah Fu Education Group said it would integrate DeepSeek's artificial-intelligence model to its platform. Shares climbed 68%.

Zoom Communications declined 2.6% after it issued a disappointing fiscal first-quarter outlook.

Watch For:

S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Prices Index for Dec; Conference Board - Consumer Confidence for Feb; earnings from Home Depot, Intuit and WorkDay

Today's Top Headlines/Must Reads:

- Apple Joins Slew of Companies Touting More U.S. Jobs. How Much Is New?

- Dan Bongino Called the FBI 'Irredeemably Corrupt.' Now He'll Help Run It.

- Chinese Manufacturers Speed Up Efforts to Dodge Trump Tariffs

MARKET WRAPS

Forex:

The dollar traded steady as investors weighed President Trump's latest tariff remarks and looked ahead to consumer confidence and manufacturing data.

Trump said tariffs on Canada and Mexico would proceed on schedule next month following an initial delay.

"Thus far, Trump's bark has been worse than his bite, though assuming that stance will hold water for the next four years might well prove folly," Pepperstone said.

The euro retraced initial gains after Germany's election but has scope to strengthen on a more sustained basis over the medium term, MUFG Bank said.

Negotiations for a potential coalition between the CDU-CSU alliance and Social Democratic Party $(SPD.AU)$ could be relatively straightforward and completed by Easter.

This coalition has greater scope to deliver policy changes than under the "gridlock of the SPD-led three-party coalition that was rife with division."

The change in government paves the way for economic policies that could boost optimism over the growth outlook and prove euro supportive, MUFG added.

Sterling could fall if Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill hints at accelerating interest rate cuts in a speech at 1400 GMT.

Pill favors gradual rate cuts but any comments that signal a faster pace of policy easing could have a tangible impact on rate expectations.

Bonds:

Treasury yields extended Monday's falls, with 10-year yields at their lowest in more than two months, as investors put more bets on Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts this year, Deutsche Bank Research said.

U.S. money markets now priced in 54 basis points of rate cuts this year, with a first 25 basis-point reduction now priced for July, having recently been priced for September, LSEG data showed.

Energy:

Oil prices rose, with positive momentum including President Trump's additional Iranian sanctions and fresh EU sanctions on Russia's shadow fleet and oil storage restrictions.

Headwinds include disappointing U.S. macroeconomic data on Friday and reports of a new coronavirus strain in China, alongside a resumption of oil flows from Kurdistan after a near two-year pause, Goldman Sachs said.

There is room for a potential recovery in positioning and valuation for oil, and Brent could rise up to $80 a barrel in the second quarter of the year.

Metals:

Gold futures, having set a fresh record in the prior session, as investors continued to pile into the precious metal on worries about President Trump's disruptive trade and geopolitical agendas.

For now, investor activity has been mostly focused on gold futures, but in recent weeks there has been a noticeable increase in physical flows in gold-backed exchange traded funds, ANZ Research said.

ETFs saw their biggest net inflow since 2022 last week, and holdings were now at their highest level since January 2024.

Comex gold futures seemed to be looking to resume their uptrend, RHB Retail Research said.

Despite mild selling pressure on Monday, bulls retained the "upper hand" based on the daily chart.

Base metals fell, with copper and aluminum both down.

However, the copper market is ready for another sustainable step up in pricing driven by strong electrification demand, while supply growth will be limited by years of underinvestment in mining capacity, according to Goldman Sachs.

TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES

Unilever Replaces CEO to Speed Up Turnaround Efforts

Unilever is unexpectedly replacing its chief executive as the consumer products giant seeks to speed up plans to revive growth.

The owner of Dove soap and Hellmann's mayonnaise said Tuesday that Hein Schumacher would step down by mutual agreement on March 1, less than two years after taking the helm at the company. He will be succeeded by finance chief Fernando Fernandez.

Nvidia Had a Rough Start to 2025. Investors Still Love the Stock.

Nvidia had a rocky start to the year. That's done little to dull its popularity among individual investors, many of whom are positioning for the shares to rally after Wednesday's earnings report.

The graphics-chip maker lost nearly $600 billion in market value in a single session in late January when news of a lower-cost artificial-intelligence model from Chinese company DeepSeek temporarily rattled investors' confidence in the AI trade.

JLL Partners Attracts TPG to Back $1.1 Billion Continuation Fund for Solvias

Buyout firm JLL Partners is lining up blue-chip investors to help extend its ownership of several businesses, part of a growing trend of private-equity managers holding on to assets rather than selling amid a prolonged dealmaking slump.

Investors in the earlier JLL fund backing Solvias, a contract pharmaceuticals researcher and manufacturer, may remain invested or cash out through a continuation fund whose lead investors, buyout firms TPG and Pantheon, made commitments through their own secondary investment funds, according to people familiar with the matter and a January regulatory filing in Switzerland.

Tesla Rolls out Update to Driver-Assistance Tech in China

Tesla rolled out an update to its driving-assistance software in China, a move that could signal final regulatory approval is forthcoming, as the technology becomes increasingly common in the world's largest EV market.

The U.S. carmaker said in its mini-application hosted by the WeChat platform Tuesday that it has pushed out a software update for some users that includes features such as its autopilot driving assistance for city roads, an in-car camera and an updated map.

ECB Can Keep Cutting Rates as Inflation Approaches Target, Bundesbank's Nagel Says

The European Central Bank can continue to reduce interest rates as eurozone inflation approaches its target, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said Tuesday.

"Incoming data suggest that we are likely to reach our medium-term target of 2% over the course of this year. This would allow us on the governing council to lower the key interest rates further," he said at the Bundesbank's press conference alongside its annual report.

Forget MAGA, Investors Want MEGA: Make Europe Great Again

Donald Trump's election victory was seen as the swan song for long-struggling European assets. Investors are now betting it could actually be the opposite.

European equities have been underperforming their U.S. peers almost continuously since 2008. In recent years, the artificial-intelligence boom benefited American and Chinese technology giants, the war in Ukraine massively increased Europe's energy costs and the pivot toward electric cars left the powerhouse German auto industry lagging behind Tesla and China's BYD.

DOGE Move to Slash Federal Leases Threatens Office-Market Recovery

The Trump administration's move to terminate millions of square feet of federal leases and sell government buildings threatens to weaken a fledgling recovery in the U.S. office market, from California to Washington, D.C.

Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has targeted nearly 100 leases at government agency offices for termination or consolidation. The Trump administration is also considering selling two-thirds of the federally owned office buildings that are empty or underused.

U.S. Wins Backing for U.N. Resolution on Ukraine War That Doesn't Blame Russia

The U.S. sided with Russia and China to win the United Nations Security Council's backing for a resolution crafted in Washington that didn't blame Moscow for the Ukraine war and called for a swift end to the conflict, as President Trump said he was in talks with Russia about an economic-development deal.

Trump's comments and the U.S.'s vote at the U.N. on Monday illustrated the extent to which the president has changed the U.S.'s posture toward the region, coming on the same day as European leaders gathered in Kyiv to mark the third anniversary of the invasion.

Acting IRS Chief Set to Retire This Week

WASHINGTON-Acting IRS Commissioner Douglas O'Donnell plans to announce his retirement on Tuesday, said two people familiar with the decision, bringing another abrupt change to a federal agency under stress during its busy period of the year.

O'Donnell is a career civil servant who has worked at the Internal Revenue Service for 38 years. He became acting commissioner last month following the resignation of Danny Werfel, who had been picked by former President Joe Biden and left on Inauguration Day.

New U.S. Sanctions Target Iran's Oil Supply Chain Amid Trump's 'Maximum Pressure' Push

The U.S. is ratcheting up sanctions targeting Iran's oil supply chain, continuing the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign to effectively blockade the country's petroleum exports, the Treasury Department said.

More than 30 entities, individuals and vessels connected with Iran's so-called shadow fleet have been hit with new U.S. sanctions, Treasury said Monday. The sanctioned entities include oil brokers in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, tanker operators and managers in China, and the head of Iran's state-owned oil company.

Write to gareth.mcpherson@wsj.com

TODAY IN CANADA

Earnings:

5N Plus 4Q

Bank of Montreal 1Q

Bank of Nova Scotia 1Q

EQB 1Q

Leon's Furniture 4Q

Maple Leaf Foods 4Q

Stantec 4Q

Timbercreek Financial 4Q

Economic Indicators $(ET)$:

Nothing major scheduled

Stocks to Watch:

BTB Real Estate 4Q Rental Rev C$32.7M; 4Q C$0.21.3; 4Q FFO Adjusted C$0.10.9

InterRent 4Q FFO C$0.156/Unit; 4Q Adjusted FFO C$0.139/Unit

MCAN Mortgage Raises Dividend to C$0.41 Vs. C$0.39; 4Q EPS C$0.20

Medical Facilities Announces Increased Price and Extension of Its Previously Announced Substantial Issuer Bid

Spin Master 4Q EPS 20c; 4Q Rev $649.1M; 4Q Adj EPS 55c; Sees 2025 Revenue Up 4%-6%

Expected Major Events for Tuesday

05:00/JPN: Jan Supermarket sales

05:30/JPN: Jan Tokyo area department store sales

05:30/JPN: Jan Nationwide department store sales

06:00/JPN: Jan Revised Machine Tool Orders

07:00/GER: 4Q GDP - Detailed breakdown

11:00/FRA: 4Q OECD trade statistics release

11:00/UK: Feb CBI Distributive Trades Survey

13:55/US: 02/22 Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index

14:00/US: 4Q U.S. Quarterly House Price Index

14:00/US: Dec U.S. Monthly House Price Index

14:00/US: Dec S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices

15:00/US: Feb Richmond Fed Business Activity Survey

15:00/US: Feb Consumer Confidence Index

18:00/US: Jan Money Stock Measures

21:30/US: API Weekly Statistical Bulletin

All times in GMT. Powered by Kantar Media and Dow Jones.

Expected Earnings for Tuesday

AdaptHealth Corp $(AHCO)$ is expected to report $0.25 for 4Q.

Airsculpt Technologies Inc (AIRS) is expected to report $-0.05 for 4Q.

American Tower REIT $(AMT)$ is expected to report $1.74 for 4Q.

Archrock Inc $(AROC)$ is expected to report $0.31 for 4Q.

Armstrong World Industries Inc $(AWI)$ is expected to report $1.37 for 4Q.

Bank of Montreal (BMO,BMO.T) is expected to report $2.27 for 1Q.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS,BNS.T) is expected to report $0.52 for 1Q.

Carter's Inc $(CRI)$ is expected to report $1.80 for 4Q.

Delek Logistics Partners $(DKL.UK)$ is expected to report $0.63 for 4Q.

Delek US Holdings Inc (DK) is expected to report $-3.13 for 4Q.

DigitalOcean Holdings Inc $(DOCN)$ is expected to report $0.16 for 4Q.

Driven Brands Holdings Inc $(DRVN)$ is expected to report $0.12 for 4Q.

Easterly Government Properties $(DEA)$ is expected to report for 4Q.

Elanco Animal Health Inc (ELAN) is expected to report $-0.08 for 4Q.

Fulcrum Therapeutics Inc (FULC) is expected to report $-0.25 for 4Q.

Harmony Biosciences Holdings Inc $(HRMY)$ is expected to report $0.73 for 4Q.

Henry Schein Inc $(HSIC)$ is expected to report $0.93 for 4Q.

Home Depot Inc $(HD)$ is expected to report $2.97 for 4Q.

Innovid Corp $(CTV.AU)$ is expected to report $0.00 for 4Q.

Interface Inc $(TILE)$ is expected to report $0.31 for 4Q.

Itron Inc $(ITRI)$ is expected to report $0.97 for 4Q.

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc (KDP) is expected to report $0.56 for 4Q.

Krispy Kreme Inc $(DNUT)$ is expected to report $0.04 for 4Q.

LGI Homes Inc (LGIH) is expected to report $2.21 for 4Q.

Maple Leaf Foods Inc (MFI.T,MLFNF) is expected to report $0.26 for 4Q.

Middleby Corp $(MIDD)$ is expected to report $2.31 for 4Q.

Netlist Inc (NLST) is expected to report $-0.04 for 4Q.

NexPoint Residential Trust Inc (NXRT) is expected to report $-0.29 for 4Q.

Obsidian Energy Ltd (OBE.T,X-OBE) is expected to report for 4Q.

Pinnacle West Capital Corp $(PNW)$ is expected to report $-0.16 for 4Q.

Planet Fitness Inc (PLNT) is expected to report $0.50 for 4Q.

Portillo's Inc $(PTLO)$ is expected to report $0.05 for 4Q.

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc $(PEG)$ is expected to report $0.73 for 4Q.

Sealed Air Corp $(SEE)$ is expected to report $0.61 for 4Q.

Sempra $(SRE)$ is expected to report $1.43 for 4Q.

Shutterstock $(SSTK)$ is expected to report $0.39 for 4Q.

Smart Share Global Ltd - ADR (EM) is expected to report for 3Q.

Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc $(SPR.UK)$ is expected to report $-1.93 for 4Q.

Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc $(TARS)$ is expected to report $-0.75 for 4Q.

Xenia Hotels & Resorts Inc $(XHR)$ is expected to report $0.02 for 4Q.

Powered by Kantar Media and Dow Jones.

ANALYST RATINGS ACTIONS

Amneal Pharmaceuticals Raised to Overweight From Neutral by JP Morgan

Arbor Realty Trust Cut to Market Perform From Outperform by Raymond James

Bath & Body Works Raised to Equal-Weight From Underweight by Barclays

Block Raised to Outperform From Market Perform by BMO Capital

bluebird bio Raised to Neutral From Underweight by JP Morgan

Boyd Gaming Cut to Equal-Weight From Overweight by Morgan Stanley

Carrier Global Raised to Outperform From Peer Perform by Wolfe Research

Century Aluminum Raised to Outperform From Market Perform by BMO Capital

CF Industries Raised to Neutral From Underperform by B of A Securities

Conagra Brands Cut to Neutral From Buy by Goldman Sachs

Exelixis Cut to Equal-Weight From Overweight by Wells Fargo

First Financial (Indiana) Raised to Buy From Neutral by Janney Montgomery Scott

Floor & Decor Holdings Raised to Buy From Hold by Stifel

Freshpet Raised to Buy From Hold by Jefferies

Intra-Cellular Therapies Cut to Neutral From Outperform by Mizuho

Nike Raised to Buy From Hold by Jefferies

Nike Shares Become Top Performer in S&P 500 After Jefferies Upgrades Stock to Buy

NMI Holdings Raised to Outperform From Market Perform by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Old Dominion Freight Raised to Buy From Hold by Stifel

Rivian Automotive Cut to Underperform From Neutral by B of A Securities

RTX Raised to Buy From Neutral by UBS

Saia Raised to Buy From Hold by Stifel

Toro Raised to Outperform From Market Perform by Northland Capital Markets

TransDigm Raised to Buy From Neutral by UBS

Twilio Raised to Overweight From Equal-Weight by Morgan Stanley

Uniti Group Raised to Strong Buy From Outperform by Raymond James

Wingstop Raised to Buy From Neutral by Guggenheim

XPO Raised to Buy From Hold by Stifel

This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 25, 2025 06:01 ET (11:01 GMT)

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