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.

“Lesson Number One: Don’t Underestimate The Other Guy’s Greed!” – Frank Lopez, Scarface

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

Bespoke’s Paul Hickey will be on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street today at 10 AM. Make sure to check it out!

Markets remain on snooze with little conviction in either direction this morning, and while investors “waiting for the Fed” has been the excuse, is there really any question over what Powell will say and do tomorrow?  Futures are as close to unchanged as you can really get this morning, with the S&P 500 indicated to open up 1 point (0.18%) while the Nasdaq is faring “significantly” worse, down 0.06%. As we wait for the Fed, there is some economic data today. Small Business sentiment hit the tape earlier and came in modestly higher than expected, while JOLTS will hit the tape at 10 AM.

Overnight in Asia, it was a ho-hum session with the Nikkei up 0.1% while China, South Korea, and India were all down fractionally (less than 0.5%). The RBA left rates unchanged but had a hawkish tone. In Europe, the STOXX is down 0.1%.

We had a power outage at the Bespoke offices yesterday afternoon, and coincidence or not, have you seen a chart of the Utilities sector recently?  After being one of the better performing sectors this year, the sector started to fall on hard times since mid-October, to the point where in late November it broke its uptrend from the April lows. From there, the weakness in the sector picked up in intensity. The fact that longer-term interest rates have been rising hasn’t helped.

The recent weakness in the sector has also brought its relative strength versus the S&P 500 to a new low for the year. After handily outperforming during the tariff-tantrum in the Spring, the sector started performing in line with the broader market. For much of the last six months, its relative strength oscillated above and below the neutral line, but the last two weeks have seen it make a new leg lower.

Given the power demands of AI, there have been times in the last few years when Utilities have been considered a technology play, but when you compare the sector’s performance to the Technology sector, it’s not even close. Utilities have been trending lower for the last six months.

The disparity is also apparent when you compare the percentage of stocks in each sector trading above their 50-day moving averages. The Utilities are experiencing a “blackout” in this metric as not a single sector closed above its 50-DMA yesterday. That compares to more than half of stocks in the Technology sector. After some trial and error last night, Con Ed finally got the power back on in our offices last night, now they need to work on getting some power back to the sector!