Opening Comment — Monday, April 13, 2026
DJIA: 47,916.57, down 269.23
S&P 500: 6,816.89, down 7.77
NASDAQ: 22,902.89, up 80.47
Stocks lower to start off week
Stock futures are lower Monday morning as markets react to President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. will blockade the Strait of Hormuz following a breakdown in peace negotiations with Iran. Investors are looking forward to today’s existing home sales data for March, along with tomorrow’s March’s Producer Price Index and small business optimism. As of 7:22 AM ET, the Dow is decreasing 0.4%, while the S&P 500 is down 0.5%. The Nasdaq 100 is also falling 0.5% relative to fair value on the GLOBEX.
U.S. equities were mixed on Friday as the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) for March accelerated to 0.9% month-over-month (MOM), in line with expectations, while the year-over-year (YOY) rate came in slightly below forecasts at 3.3%. The core CPI (which excludes food and energy) came in softer-than-anticipated, rising 0.2% MOM and 2.6% YOY in March. The University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index for April fell more than anticipated to 47.6, while inflation expectations for the one-year outlook and the 5-to-10-year horizon edged up to 4.8% and 3.4%, respectively. The Dow was down 0.6%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4%. The S&P 500 decreased 0.1% with seven of 11 sectors finishing in negative territory. The Information Technology sector was the top performer, rising 0.8%, while the Consumer Staples sector was the bottom performer, falling 1.4%.
On the data front, existing home sales are forecasted to have been at an annualized 4.05 million pace in March, versus the prior month’s 4.09 million pace, corresponding to a decrease of 0.8% versus the prior month’s increase of 1.7%.
Across the pond, European stocks are lower in mid-day trading as investors are looking forward to a slew of speakers this week from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England ahead of their end-of-month meetings.
Overnight in Asia, stocks were mostly lower as South Korean trade data for the first 10 days of April showed export and import growth easing to 36.7% and 12.7% YOY, respectively.
In FOREX trading, the U.S. dollar is higher as investors await this week’s supplementary U.S. inflation data.
Over in the commodity pits, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is 7.7% higher at $103.99/barrel.
In the metals complex, gold is 0.6% lower at $4,721.02/ounce following a strengthening U.S. dollar.