Good morning. It’s the last trading day in April and it’s been an active morning. To recap yesterday, mega cap tech earnings and the Fed’s rate decision/Powell’s presser were the highlights and lead-in to today. Before those, energy was the main story as oil continued to climb. The S&P managed to close essentially flat while the Russell 2000 fell 0.6%. Semis bounced after selling off Tuesday on the WSJ’s OpenAI story. Headlines that Trump told aides to prepare for a drawn-out blockade and new strikes being planned by the Pentagon weighed on equities as well. Regarding the Fed, rates were left unchanged as was expected, while further hawkish dissention emerged and Powell said he’d be staying on as governor after his term as chair ends.

The mega-cap tech earnings last night from mega cap tech were eye-popping yet again. GOOG are higher while META was sharply lower. S&P futures are at their best levels, pushing higher after a sharp pullback in crude earlier this morning.

Investors are digesting the earnings flood, along with generally strong economic data, the pullback in oil and yields and rate decisions from the ECB and BOE. The economic data today is adding to the huge mound of earnings. After rising above $126, Brent crude has pulled back sharply to ~$114, down 3% as the June contract expires. That’s helped lift precious metals and ag is mostly higher as well outside of wheat, giving back some of the week’s gains. The yen weakened back to the critical ¥160 level before new warnings and speculation of active intervention brought it to ~¥155 at its lows.