Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving.
Nike continues to be a drag on the broader index, and Bank of America is not offering any relief. Analysts there have scrapped their hopes for a spring sales recovery, now projecting falling revenue through May. The stock ranks among the worst performers in the S and P five hundred, and BofA's message is clear — the floor has not yet been found.
Shifting to commodities, cocoa is extending a four-session winning streak, with December New York futures up nearly a third of a percent. The driver is weather risk in West Africa, specifically dry conditions and below-normal rainfall forecasts across the Ivory Coast. With that region supplying the bulk of global cocoa, any disruption to growing conditions tends to move prices quickly.
On the trade front, new data from JD Power Canada shows American-built vehicles accounted for just twenty-eight point four percent of new car sales in Canada in the first half of this year, down sharply from thirty-five point four percent in the same period last year. Nearly a decade ago that figure was closer to half. The tariff policy designed to protect American manufacturing is, by this measure, costing U.S. automakers one of their most reliable export markets.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
