march 8  welcome to the home for realtime coverage of markets brought to you by reuters reporters you can share your thoughts with us at marketsresearchthomsonreuterscom a report that the european union may soon announce a plan to jointly issue bonds to finance energy and defense spending could be a boon for the euro and mark a turnaround for the single currency after it dropped to its lowest level in almost twoyears against the us dollar bloomberg news reported on tuesday that the eu may unveil a plan as soon as this week to jointly issue bonds to finance spending on a potentially massive scale as the region struggles with the fallout from russia’s invasion of ukraine “this could represent a game changer for the euro” citi fx analyst vasileios gkionakis said in a report assuming that the news is confirmed at this week’s eu emergency summit in versailles and that the “timingsize are promptmeaningful” gkionakis noted that details around how any such plan would work are lacking and as such “we would advise to tread carefully and await more clarity on the news” however if an “appropriate package” was agreed to it could boost the single currency in three ways firstly it would cushion the supplyside impact on growth in the region by cushioning growth it would also make it easier for the european central bank to bring forward expectations on stimulus withdrawal also “on a broader basis this would constitute another act of debtmutualization hence positive for eu and eurosentiment” gkionakis said the single currency hit 10806 against the greenback on monday the lowest since may 2020 before rebounding to 10881 on tuesday both the sp 500 and nymex crude futures have weakened just slightly in the time since us president joe biden announced a ban on russian oil and other energy imports on tuesday in retaliation for the invasion of ukraine read more since around the time president biden announced his actions the sp 500 spx has now lost around 02 while crude futures have lost around 03 with the moves the spx is still holding above its latefebruary low at 411465 and crude futures have so far failed to surpass mondays high at 13050 regarding crude futures they are now trading at more than 215 times their 200week moving average which puts this reading on pace for an alltime high  click here read more weekly momentum is also severely overbought at more than 90 the rsi is on track for a record high going back to early 1983 it now remains to be seen of these extreme readings can be maintained into fridays weekly close here is where markets stand in latemorning trade reddits wsb founder seeks to mimic pelosis trading strategies via new portfolio 1052 est1552 gmt the founder of the reddits wallstreetbets forum jaime rogozinski announced the listing approval of the insider portfolio on seychelles merj exchange on tuesday a fund that tracks the trading strategies of us congresspeople including us speaker of the house nancy pelosi the portfolio will regularly rebalance to reflect pelosis trading strategies based on her public disclosures as tracked by the company unusualwhalescom a service selling financial data pelosis stock trading performance ranked sixthbest in 2021 in congress with republican congressman austin scott leading the way according to an analysis by unusualwhalescom discussion of pelosis trades is a recurring theme on social media including wallstreetbets where retail investors banded together a year ago to coordinate frenzied buying of video games retailer gamestop gmen and other companies which eventually became known as meme stocks read more pelosi and other us lawmakers have been scrutinized on social media as many users believe the us speaker of the house may have an edge on wall street in her newest periodic transaction report the senior democrat disclosed that her husband financier paul pelosi on jan 21 exercised call options to buy shares of apple aaplo walt disney disn and paypal holdings pyplo for a combined 29 million based on the options strike prices read more however tracking lawmakers portfolio changes may not be that simple while the law requires lawmakers to disclose stock transactions by themselves or family members within 45 days the reports are typically filed days after the actual purchases and sales making it potentially difficult for traders aiming to mimic lawmakers specific trades data released on tuesday  and late monday  tells market watchers what they already knew demand is robust running circles around a slowly recovering supply chain the gap in the value of goods and services imported to the us versus those of domestic origin exported abroad ustbaleci widened more than expected in january to 897 billion the largest deficit on record read more the commerce departments reading was 26 billion bigger than the consensus forecast and was driven by surging imports as demand in the us continued to outpace the rest of the world a state of affairs which could bode ill for firstquarter economic growth net exports have been a drag on gdp over the last six quarters and the early data suggest another negative contribution in q1 writes rubeela farooqi chief us economist at high frequency economics who adds overall trade flows are at historic highs despite supply chain disruptions and logistical challenges the deficit is poised to remain elevated for now on ongoing strong demand for imports farooqi says the closely watched goods trade gap with china held steady at 364 billion in a separate report small business owners grew grumpier in february according to the national federation of independent business nfib read more the nfibs business optimism index usopineci shed 14 points to land at 957 the sourest reading since january 2021 weighed down by inflation concerns inflation continues to be a problem on main street leading more owners to raise selling prices again in february says bill dunkelberg nfibs chief economist the percentage of respondents identifying hot inflation as their biggest problem hit the highest level in 42 years and the net percent of participants hiking average selling prices reached a 48year high but its not all bad news according to ian shepherdson chief economist at pantheon macroeconomics capex intentions dipped two points but are holding up well and are consistent with the idea that business fixed investment will rise at a doubledigit pace over the next year he writes it should be noted that the nfib is a politically active membership organization and the index was last lower the month president joe biden was inaugurated finally in more ancient news on monday afternoon the federal reserve released its data on outstanding consumer credit uscredeci which increased by 684 billion marking an unexpected deceleration and missing estimates by a country mile economists expected total consumer credit debt to accelerate by 238 billion in january total consumer credit outstanding currently sits at about 44 trillion an increase in nonrevolving credit which includes big ticket items such as autos and tuition did the heavy lifting as revolving credit or credit card debt was essentially unchanged this bucks the trend a bit credit card spending has long since risen above prepandemic levels while nonrevolving credit a smaller piece of the total pie is yet to recover ground lost to covid it pays to remember credit outstanding is not the same as consumer spending an elevated saving rate has left the average consumer with stuffed piggy banks and fat wallets after a green start wall street took a uturn in morning trading extending mondays sell off which confirmed a correction for the dow and a bear market for the nasdaq crude prices continued to surge taking energy stocks spny with them cme emini nasdaq 100 futures have been beaten up pretty badly over the past three trading days in fact they ended monday at their lowest level since midmay 2021 which put them down 196 from their november19 record closing high of note the nasdaq composite ixic ended monday down 201 from its november19 record close officially putting it in bearmarket territory overnight action saw the futures fall as low as 1310325 before then snapping back with this reversal the futures have yet to violate their february 24 intraday low at 1302575 meanwhile the daily rsi at just over 3000 is attempting to stabilize above its february 23 low at 2790 if so this momentum indicator will have the potential to establish a second higherlow vs its latejanuary trough of 17533 such a convergence could signal building positive momentum and therefore the potential for a surprise upside turn in that event however the futures would still have to contend with stiff resistance in the form of the descending 30day moving average dma which has been consistently capping strength since earlytomid january additionally since latenovember the rsi has been exhibiting bearish behavior by being unable to muster enough strength to reclaim the 7000 overbought threshold thus on any strength traders will be eyeing futures action closely vs the 30dma along with the rsi to add confidence in the sustainability of any bounce read more on a break of 13025 the next support is at the midmay low of 12896 this is just ahead of the 382 fibonacci retracement of the entire march2020november2021 advance at 1287357 for tuesdays live markets posts prior to 0900 est1400 gmt  click here terence gabriel is a reuters market analyst the views expressed are his own