thursday market open earnings season is having its last hurrah but even solid results from a handful of major companies can’t compete with rising yields for attention on wall street major indexes remain under intense pressure from the fixed income market and it’s hard to see a catalyst that would change that anytime soon treasury yields continued their relentless march upward early thursday and the dollar and volatility also turned higher this is a massive headwind for stocks the benchmark 10year treasury yield is now just about 20 basis points below last fall’s peak as investors build in chances of higher interest rates lasting longer for the stock market it’s kind of a catch22 inflation needs to moderate and the economy needs to maintain itself somewhat at the same time it’s a fine needle to thread shares of both salesforce crm and macy’s m rose doubledigits in premarket trading after their earnings came in above analysts’ estimates on the downside tesla tsla shares dove nearly 7 after the company’s investor day investors appeared worried about the company’s heavy spending plans as it tries to build production volume macy’s m took wall street by surprise with an impressive holiday quarter that exceeded analysts’ expectations on earnings per share eps and revenue guidance looked down the middle compared with wall street’s estimates gross margin did fall however something the company blamed on “planned markdowns and promotions” that exceeded the yearago levels when that type of activity had been difficult due to supply chain issues kroger’s kr earnings also recently hit the tape and appeared relatively strong overseas inflation in europe as measured by its core consumer price index for february again topped expectations european central bank ecb president christine lagarde sounded a hawkish note on rates saying increases may need to continue analysts expect a 50basispoint ecb hike later this month back at home initial jobless claims remained near recent depths at 190000 compared with analysts’ consensus of 197000 continuing claims fell slightly these data continue to show no signs of softening in the hot us labor market in case you’re wondering tomorrow’s calendar doesn’t include the february nonfarm payrolls report that’s due next friday so feel free to sleep in   the us dollar index dxy bounced to 1049   wti crude oil cl has been rising all week and now trades at 7811 per barrel while the tnx scraped 4 for the first time in nearly four months yesterday the more ratesensitive 2year treasury note yield doesn’t tell a much happier story it climbed about 8 basis points yesterday as minneapolis fed president neel kashkari—once known for his dovish views—said he’s “openminded” about raising rates 25 or 50 basis points at the federal open market committee fomc meeting later this month he called recent economic data “concerning” in that it showed fed policy not making progress as quickly as he’d like kashkari did warn investors that one month of data might not tell the whole story it’s a fresh calendar page and there’s all sorts of february data between now and the march 21 – 22 fomc meeting next week’s february nonfarm payrolls report and the midmonth february inflation data could potentially tell a different story than january’s disappointing tale there was even some “bad news is good news” data wednesday as the wall street journal reported private job postings recently showed weakness it’s a 70 probability we’ll get a 25basispoint hike at the fomc meeting and 30 for a halfpoint hike according to the cme fedwatch tool however kashkari said fomc projections also due at the meeting are a more important signal he added he’s prepared to push up his policy path on the fed’s “dotplot” meaning he might raise his longterm rate views fed governor christopher waller is scheduled to speak at 4 pm et today addressing the economic outlook his words could have an impact on overnight futures trading so be aware if you’re planning to trade after the close salesforce crm knocked it out of the park with earnings late wednesday and investors awarded crm by sending shares up 14 in premarket trading the cloudbased software company exceeded expectations in every aspect of its quarter beating analysts’ estimates on earnings per share eps revenue and guidance it also announced an increase in its share repurchase program this represented a nice rebound for crm recently dogged by a tough macro environment layoffs concerns about the departure of its coceo and heavy competition its earnings release emphasized a solid cash flow and the company’s costcutting focus as it tries to improve profits appeared well received still crm sounded a conservative note about business demand in coming quarters something to keep in mind broadcom avgo due this afternoon had strong earnings last time it reported and follows a powerful earnings report earlier this month from nvidia nvda also in the semiconductor arena avgo released aggressive guidance back in the fall so it has some big numbers to live up to this time around in its last earnings report avgo noted softer demand for consumer electronic devices and a slowing global economy but in a call with investors reported by barron’s executives said the company has some advantages in cloud and infrastructure markets tomorrow morning brings the institute for supply management ism services purchasing managers’ index pmi which follows yesterday’s ism manufacturing index numbers that appeared to be mostly bearish for the market if not the economy the services sector is where much of the recent growth has been and analysts expect that to show up in friday’s report due soon after the market opens the consensus for headline services pmi is 545 according to research firm briefingcom that’s above the 50 level that signifies expansion last time out the new orders category of the report rose meteorically from the previous 452 to 604 services is the largest segment of the us economy any sign of a pullback in february’s report would likely be welcome by fedsensitive stock sectors like consumer discretionary yesterday’s february ism manufacturing index came in basically as expected but still in contraction at 477 that’s the fourth straight month it’s been in the red so to speak but up from 474 in january while the headline number wasn’t too impressive a big jump in the new orders category appeared to unsettle investors and may be one reason treasury yields set new highs for their recent move wednesday new orders is the most forwardlooking aspect of the report prices also jumped not good news for inflationweary americans a nondata point to ponder today is the 200day moving average ma of the sp 500® index spx which has been holding on for dear life the last week at around 3940 the spx actually dipped just below 3940 at one point wednesday before recovering to finish above it the last time the spx closed below the 200day ma was about seven weeks ago a finish under that level could potentially open the way to more technical selling if you want to know what stocks are doing without glancing at the major indexes just check the bond market lately higher yields and lower stock market values have an awfully close correlation   that held true wednesday when the tnx eclipsed 4 for the first time since november while the largest industrial companies represented in the dji didn’t take too big a blow more ratesensitive growth stocks represented in the comp kept descending and have finished lower three of the last four sessions   the comp is more dependent on future growth than other major indexes and the current nearly 90basispoint inversion between the 10year and the 2year treasury yield indicates investors aren’t sold on the economy staying in growth mode under the weight of rising rates both info tech and communication service companies are heavily represented in the comp and both stepped back wednesday   if you’re looking for green industrials and materials stocks had decent sessions wednesday helped perhaps by signs of strength in china’s reopening economy energy also got a lift companies that might benefit from a revived china including caterpillar cat 3m mmm boeing ba honeywell hon and dow chemical dow all finished higher ideas to mull as you trade or invest retirement reset in some us states 1 million in savings will only comfortably last a retiree slightly more than 10 years according to an analysis released last month by gobankingrates the news gets a bit worse from here as of 2021 the federal reserve reported that about threequarters of nonretired americans had some retirement savings while the remaining 25 had none—a statistic largely unchanged since 2019 the same year a charles schwab survey of 1000 us workers reported that the average respondent said they need 19 million to retire as an investor this might not be welcome news reaching 1 million let alone 19 million is a challenge and many people can’t simply move to a cheaper state however starting early making sure you balance your investments as you age and staying invested—rather than trying to time the market—are at least initial steps toward building your retirement portfolio chips to shore it’s prime time for the chip industry and not only because avgo reports today and micron mu reports earnings later this month tuesday marked opening day for the 53 billion chips act a program to incentivize domestic manufacturing of chips after years of offshoring top candidate companies to potentially benefit from government funds under the act include taiwan semiconductor manufacturing tsm intel intc and samsung electronics the wall street journal reported the subsidies could amount to several billion dollars in some cases one thing to keep in mind not all chip makers will benefit equally from this legislation companies that design and manufacture their own chips such as intc mu and texas instruments txn have more to gain companies that design chips but don’t manufacture them—including nvidia nvda advanced micro devices amd and qualcomm qcom—don’t necessarily benefit directly more details on how companies can apply for funds under the act are due thursday profitable reading few investors generally take the time to review transcripts of company earnings calls too bad because that’s where you can really sense the challenges firms face and even the mood executives convey if you want to sum up retailer earnings calls to date—including some of the biggest like walmart wmt target tgt and home depot hd—it’s fair to say that despite progress on supplychain snafus and a year under their belts dealing with inflation profit margins remain a major concern “our growth in ’22 didn’t come easily” tgt ceo brian cornell said in the company’s earnings call earlier this week “it wasn’t nearly as profitable as we expected it to be over time” meanwhile hd warned that operating margins could face an impact from the company’s initiative to increase worker pay wmt said “macro pressures” could “obscure” margin expansion progress want to learn more consider a quick plow through the transcripts it’s amazing what you can learn in five minutes and it’s easy to find them for free online march 9 initial and continuing jobless claims and expected earnings from jdcom jd all amounts are in canadian dollars this post contains sponsored advertising content this content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice