Twenty Minutes to the Close, Quietly in the Green

With twenty minutes left before the close, the S&P 500 sits at 7,641.48, up 0.05%, and the Nasdaq at 26,466.62, up 0.18%. That's up 0.17 points from my early brief at 03:10 for the S&P and up 0.21 points for the Nasdaq, so the mood has quietly tilted toward green over the course of the day.

Two threads explain the move. Nasdaq 100 futures actually climbed even as tensions flared in the Middle East, apparently lifted by news of Trump's decision, and that momentum seems to have carried into the cash session. On the flip side, the bond market got noisy — the 10-year yield pushed back up near 5%, and the Kansas City Fed president said the central bank still has work to do on inflation, which dragged rate-sensitive utilities and financials into the red. Even so, steady buying in cybersecurity names kept the indices propped up.

Compared with the Kospi's 2.66% jump at the 9/18 Korean close, today's U.S. market feels a lot quieter. The won weakened to 1,376.60 against the dollar while the dollar index eased slightly — worth keeping an eye on. Among my holdings, Microsoft is still my steadiest name at +25.2%, while HD Hyundai Electric sits in an awkward spot at -7.6%. Into the close, I'm watching whether this quiet green holds through the bell, and whether the weakness in utilities and financials spreads further.