Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 1/30/26 – You’re Hired

Jan 30, 2026

See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium.  CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.

“Hi-yo, Silver! – The Lone Ranger

Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.  

Warsh it is. After months of speculation in the horse race among potential candidates, President Trump announced his boardroom decision, and the winner of “The Apprentice: Federal Reserve” is Kevin Warsh. Futures initially sold off sharply when news of the nomination first hit the tape last night; they have since recovered much of those losses. The major averages are now looking at more modest declines of 0.50% or less. It remains to be seen how Kevin Warsh will act when he’s in the Chairman’s seat, and while he may be considered as more hawkish than some of the other nominees, he’s well respected by the street. Furthermore, all worries over Fed independence over the last six months can probably be put to rest.

It was a lower session to close the week in Asia, as major country benchmarks ended the week with mixed returns. Japan finished the week down 1% while China was down less than half that. On the upside, the Hang Seng had a much better week, rallying 2.4%, but couldn’t hold a candle to South Korea, which rallied 4.7%. Japanese yields pulled in a bit after Tokyo CPI decelerated from 2.0% to 1.5% y/y.

In Europe, it’s a much more positive tone this morning as the STOXX 600 is up nearly 1% with Spain’s 1.8% rally leading the way, although no major benchmark is up less than 0.5%. Banks are seeing some of the largest gains, but the rally has been broad-based with Energy and Materials being the only sectors in the red, while advancers outpace decliners at a 5-2 rate. In economic data, Eurozone GDP rose more than expected 0.3% while CPI in Spain declined more than expected (-0.4% m/m).

The only economic data on the calendar today in the US is PPI at 8:30 and Chicago PMI at 9:45, but the main area of focus will be the President’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to replace Powell. PPI came in much higher than expected on both a headline (0.7% vs 0.3%) and core level (0.5% vs 0.2%), so that has pushed futures down a bit again.

It seems fitting that on the anniversary of the Lone Ranger radio debut in 1933, we’re getting some historic moves in silver over the last 24 hours. Let’s start with the Silver ETF (SLV). In yesterday’s session, the ETF traded as high as $109.83 before cratering to $96.74 and then settling at $105.57. From its intraday high to its intraday low, though, SLV traded in a 13.5% range which was the second largest intraday range in the ETF’s history, trailing only the “marathon” 26.2% intraday range on 10/10/08 during the thick of the financial crisis.

As if yesterday’s session wasn’t enough volatility for you, this morning, the SLV ETF is on pace to gap down 11.1%, which would be just the second time in its history that it opened down more than 10%. The only larger downside gap was a 13.6% decline on 3/16/20 during the heart of the Covid crash.  In terms of yesterday’s range and today’s downside gap, recent activity in SLV is right up there with levels of volatility we saw during major market crises. What’s the issue this time around? The really amazing part about today’s downside gap in SLV, though, is that if current levels hold through the end of the day, it will still be up on the week!

Not to be left out of the volatility party, gold is also poised for a rough start today. The Gold ETF (GLD) is on pace to gap down 5.1%, which would also be the second-largest downside gap in its 20+ year trading history. The only larger downside gap was on Tax Day in 2013, when GLD gapped down 5.5%. Like SLV, though, if current levels hold through the end of the trading day, GLD would also finish the week with a gain!

Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 1/29/26 – Energized Energy

Jan 29, 2026

See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium.  CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.

“You can fool some of the people some of the time — and that’s enough to make a decent living.” – W.C. Fields

Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.  

It was only a 0.01% decline, but the S&P 500’s drop yesterday ended a streak of five straight gains. The Nasdaq managed to finish up 0.17%, extending its winning streak to six. This morning, both indices are trading higher, so for the Nasdaq will today be lucky number seven?  While Meta (META) and Tesla (TSLA) are doing their part to extend the Nasdaq’s streak, Microsoft (MSFT) is trading the other way after weak margin guidance has that hyperscaler trading down a not so lucky 7% this morning.

Outside of treasuries, the 10-year US Treasury yield is basically unchanged at 4.25%, while the dollar is little changed after a volatile few days to start the week. Precious metals continue to get more precious this morning, with gold up over 4% and breaking through $5,500 per ounce. Silver is up over 5%, platinum is up nearly 5%, and copper is also at a record, trading up close to 7%. For all three metals, their year-to-date gains are leaving equities in the dust.

In Asia overnight, the Nikkei was basically unchanged, but South Korea rallied another 1% as SK Hynix reported strong Q4 results. Hong Kong, China, and India were also higher on the session, while Australia had a marginal decline.

European stocks are mostly higher this morning as the STOXX 600 gains 0.5%, but Germany has been a major outlier with a decline of nearly 1% as earnings results from SAP weigh on the DAX. A January survey of Business and Consumer sentiment came in stronger than expected, showing an unexpected increase relative to December.

With the Federal Reserve behind us, investors will now turn back to earnings and economic data. Earnings this morning have been OK, with EPS and revenue beat rates for the morning coming in at about 67%. The economic calendar is also busy with Non-Farm Productivity, Unit Labor Costs, and jobless claims at 8:30, followed by Factor Orders and Wholesale Inventories at 10 AM.

In yesterday’s note, we highlighted the strength in the Energy and Materials sectors and how they were leading all other sectors in terms of year-to-date returns. Through yesterday’s close, Energy and Materials were still leading the performance derby, but Energy is the only sector that remains in ‘extreme’ overbought territory (more than two standard deviations above its 50-DMA). Behind Technology, which has had a run this week, Energy is also the best-performing sector over the last five trading days.

Crude oil prices are up over 12% this year, and natural gas enjoyed a surge during the cold snap, although the contract roll has brought front-month futures prices back down to a three-handle this morning. You don’t have to look any further than these moves in the underlying commodities to understand why energy stocks are doing so well, but strength within the sector, while broad-based, hasn’t been uniform.

As shown in the snapshot below, all but one of the sector’s 20+ components are up YTD. The only outlier is Expand Energy (EXE), which is fractionally lower for the year. On the upside, the two leading stocks in the sector this year have been Schlumberger (SLB) and Baker Hughes (BKR), with gains of more than 20%. Both stocks gapped sharply higher following the early January arrest of Maduro in Venezuela and basically haven’t looked back since. Of the nine stocks in the sector up at least 10%, though, there’s been a smorgasbord of exploration companies, integrated oil companies, and even refiners.