Remy: And ahead of the new trading day. Let's go out to Chicago. The TV correspondent Mark Payton is live from the C trading floor. Good morning, Mark. Thank you so much for joining us. So what pre-market activity are you watching this morning?
Mark Payton: Good morning, Remy. Yes, we're looking at another positive start for stocks this morning. S&P futures are up about 0.1%. Dow futures are higher and Nasdaq futures are up about 0.1%. And that follows another strong day on Wall Street. The Nasdaq closed, as you mentioned, a record high yesterday, while the S&P 500 finished just about 0.1% away from its record. Volatility also remains pretty. The VIX closed yesterday around 15.5%. So despite everything we've been talking about with rates, oil, and inflation, we're still not seeing a lot of fear in this market, and investors are getting a little help this morning from both bonds and oil. The 10-year Treasury yield has pulled back around 5.27%. Oil is moving in the right direction for stocks as well. WTI and Brent both down. You've got yields coming down, oil coming down, and stocks continuing to push higher, and AI remains a huge part of this rally. Nvidia is higher again this morning and it's now valued at roughly $5.8 trillion. So as we get closer to earnings season, the question is whether corporate earnings can continue to support these valuations that keep this momentum going.
Remy: And Mark, speaking of which, it is fairly light on the economic calendar this week following last week. But of course we are paying attention to the Fed minutes coming out tomorrow afternoon and the inflation figures set for release next week. But this morning we did get the ADP weekly employment change as well as the trade balance for the month of August. So our secret traders paying attention to any of the details from these reports.
Mark Payton: Yes, definitely. I think when you put these numbers together we're still looking at an economy that's showing some underlying strength. So let's start with jobs. ADP says private employers added an average of about 24,000 jobs per week over the latest four week period. And here's what's interesting hiring has now accelerated for five straight weeks. So yes, we've seen the labor market cool, but we're certainly not seeing hiring just fall off a cliff. Then you have the trade picture, and this one's really interesting. The advanced numbers showed the goods trade. widened sharply in August, about $133 billion up from about $119 billion in July. And a big reason for that was a surge in imports. So goods imports jumped more than $17 billion in just one month, reaching about $336 billion. Now we've seen some big swings in imports this year. Earlier in the year, companies rushed to bring goods into the country ahead of the Liberation Day tariffs, but this latest surge is different. We're seeing a big increase in industrial. Supplies and capital goods and some of that capital spending is connected to the enormous build out we're seeing around AI and data centers. So what does this all mean for the market right now? I don't think there's anything here that necessarily stops the momentum. Hiring is still moving forward. Businesses are still investing. Oil and treasury yields are both moving lower this morning, and investors continue to beat the corporate earnings, particularly around AI. So it's going to keep things interesting, but I think the rally is going to keep moving forward, Remy.
Remy: Well, a lot to keep our eyes on, Mark, as we head into the market open for the equity markets. So thank you so much for joining us from the Cebo this morning.
