investingLive Americas FX news wrap: Big flight to safety on AI disruption worries
2026-02-12 21:00:00
- US weekly initial jobless claims 227K vs 222K expected
- US January existing home sales 3.91m vs 4.18m expected
- Trump: We have to make a deal with Iran, could come over the next month
- US sells 30-year bonds at 4.750% vs 4.771% WI
- Netanyahu says Trump may reach good deal with Iran
- US January CPI report to offer a cleaner read on inflation developments?
Markets:
- Gold down $161 to $4916
- WTI crude oil down $1.76 to $62.87
- US 10-year yields down 8 bps to 4.10%
- S&P 500 down 1.65%
- JPY leads, AUD lags
Nothing is safe except bonds. That was the message from trading today as a handful of sectors like software continued to be beaten down while others like trucking and office real estate joined in the bloodbath.
The day started out ho-hum with stocks flat and nothing too dramatic underway. Initial jobless claims were on the soft side but didn’t create any waves. But the pain started in software stocks with Applovin, which quickly fell 16% despite beating on the top and bottom line.
It was another reminder of just how quickly winners can turn to losers in this market and that fear spread right into the close. Trucking companies and commercial real estate were hit particularly hard, with drops in the 20% range intraday.
Other stocks looked like they were pricing in a sudden recession, which is the opposite of what yesterday’s non-farm payrolls report showed.
In gold, the move was sudden as it fell $100 in minutes and then continued to slide afterwards. That move is still unexplained and the rumor mill kicked up with talk of a CPI leak ahead of tomorrow’s report.
The bond market didn’t help the mood as the stop through in the 30-year bond sale was the largest since Liberation Day. Up to now, the bond market wasn’t validating the turmoil in equities but that could be changing. Oil also sold off on the Trump/Netanyahu statements. The indications are towards at least a month of negotiations, though things tend to change quickly with Trump.
Overall, it was an unsettling day and it’s equally worrisome that so many stocks have quickly fallen 10-20% and yet the S&P 500 is still only 3% from a record.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.
