• After a solid week in markets last week, news over the weekend put equities gapping lower pre-market. The sell-off was driven President Trump announcing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada (10% on Canadian energy), 10% tariffs on China, and impending tariffs on the EU. The dollar, oil, and gold all rose. The imposition of tariffs is scheduled to take place tomorrow, with calls scheduled with the leaders of Mexico and Canada today.
• We expected volatility with this Presidential administration, and it has arrived. The tariffs are expected to immediately raise prices on a variety of goods from avocados to cars, and both Canada and Mexico have stated that they will retaliate by imposing tariffs on U.S. goods. Trump has said he will escalate tariffs further in response. Unfortunately, this could be the beginnings of a trade war, although we expect that Trump’s tariff plans will eventually be negotiated lower.
• Meanwhile, the TPS status of Venezuelan migrants was suspended, and government agencies including US AID were taken offline. Also, DOGE leader Musk has indicated that government payments will be halted, and Secretary of State Rubio stated that the current situation in the Panama Canal was “unacceptable.” Markets hate uncertainty more than anything else, and right now, that’s the issue, especially as more market-friendly pieces of Trumps goals (lower taxes and regulations) appear to have taken a back seat to tariffs.
• Ultimately, we expect the U.S. economy to manage through the Trump fusillade, but at a slower pace of growth. Last week, 4Q24 Advance GDP estimate missed expectations at 2.3%, versus estimate of 2.6% and 3.1% prior.

• The Fed held rates steady in a range of 4.25%- 4.50%, as expected. The FOMC statement indicated that “the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance,” and Fed Chair Powell stated that the committee does “not need to be in a hurry” to cut rates again.
• Last week, equities closed lower for the week led by a tech sell-off as a result of Chinese developed DeepSeek’s AI milestone. DeepSeek’s efficiency in performance at a tiny fraction of the cost of U.S. counterparts raised new concerns among investors, questioning of both magnitude and return on investments from hyperscalers such as Microsoft (MSFT), level of incremental future demand in infrastructure product providers such as Nvidia (NVDA), and the energy demand needed from utility companies such as Constellation (CEG).

• In Mag 7 earnings, Microsoft (MSFT) reported in-line results, but faced criticism from investors as its cloud division Azure annualized growth slowed again this time from 34% to 31%. Tesla (TSLA) missed badly on all major fronts, but saw investors cheer behind the announcements of unsupervised FSD roll in several cities this year plus promises to deliver on an affordable entry level class EV in 1H25 and Cybercab ramp up for 2026. Meta (META) delivered a beat, but with weak revenue guidance for next quarter. Apple (AAPL) reported tame results with less revenues than expected coming from the Chinese market, while the positive highlight was the increase in growth from its services division.
• Other notable earnings included big hits from IBM (IBM), Starbucks (SBUX), and Lam Research (LRCX), and major misses from Boeing (BA), UPS (UPS) and ServiceNow (NOW).
• In macro data last week, PCE figures for December were in-line with estimates. Headline PCE climbed by 0.3% MoM and 2.6% YoY, while core PCE rose by 0.2% and 2.8%, respectively.

• In other macro updates, Personal Income and Spending for December were largely in-line.

The Week Ahead

• 4Q24 earnings season will continue with earnings this week from Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), Palantir (PLTR), PayPal (PYPL), Pfizer (PFE), Pepsi (PEP), Snap (SNAP), Advanced Micro (AMD), Chipotle (CMG), Uber (UBER), Pinterest (PINS), Fortinet (FTNT), Qualcomm (QCOM), Cloudfare (NET), Roblox (RBLX), Honeywell (HON), Bristol-Meyers (BMY) are among companies set to report.
• Macro data will also be important with the monthly employment report for January to be released on Friday. Before the official employment report, we get JOLTS data from December (a month lagged) expected to show 8 million job openings, while ADP employment change from January is expected to be 150K, compared to 122K in December. On Friday, the official employment report is expected to show the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1% while nonfarm payrolls expanded by 170K in January, compared to 256K in December.

Market Summary – Returns and Yields

• Bonds and equities are higher for the YTD. The dollar and gold rallied on tariffs announcement.

For additional insights, be sure to check out last week’s blog post.

Definitions, sources, and disclaimers

This content is being published by Amerant Investments, Inc (Amerant Investments), a dually registered broker-dealer and investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and member of FINRA/SIPC. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill, endorsement, or approval. Amerant Investments is an affiliate of Amerant Bank.

Definitions:

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP): A comprehensive measure of U.S. economic activity. GDP is the value of the goods and services produced in the United States. The growth rate of GDP is the most popular indicator of the nation’s overall economic health. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
• GDPNow is not an official forecast of the Atlanta Fed. Rather, it is best viewed as a running estimate of real GDP growth based on available economic data for the current measured quarter. There are no subjective adjustments made to GDPNow—the estimate is based solely on the mathematical results of the model. In particular, it does not capture the impact of COVID-19 and social mobility beyond their impact on GDP source data and relevant economic reports that have already been released. It does not anticipate their impact on forthcoming economic reports beyond the standard internal dynamics of the model.
• The Current Employment Statistics (CES) program produces detailed industry estimates of nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings of workers on payrolls. CES National Estimates produces data for the nation, and CES State and Metro Area produces estimates for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and about 450 metropolitan areas and divisions. Each month, CES surveys approximately 142,000 businesses and government agencies, representing approximately 689,000 individual worksites. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• Initial Claims: An initial claim is a claim filed by an unemployed individual after a separation from an employer. The claimant requests a determination of basic eligibility for the UI program. When an initial claim is filed with a state, certain programmatic activities take place and these result in activity counts including the count of initial claims. The count of U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance is a leading economic indicator because it is an indication of emerging labor market conditions in the country. However, these are weekly administrative data which are difficult to seasonally adjust, making the series subject to some volatility. Source: US Department of Labor (DOL).
• The Consumer Price Index (CPI): Is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Indexes are available for the U.S. and various geographic areas. Average price data for select utility, automotive fuel, and food items are also available. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• The national unemployment rate: Perhaps the most widely known labor market indicator, this statistic reflects the number of unemployed people as a percentage of the labor force. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• The number of people in the labor force. This measure is the sum of the employed and the unemployed. In other words, the labor force level is the number of people who are either working or actively seeking work.Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services: Estimated monthly sales for retail and food services, adjusted and unadjusted for seasonal variations. Source: United States Census Bureau.
• Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC): Responsible for implementing Open market Operations (OMOs)–the purchase and sale of securities in the open market by a central bank—which are a key tool used by the US Federal Reserve in the implementation of monetary policy. Source: Federal Reserve.
• The Federal Funds Rate: Is the interest rate at which depository institutions trade federal funds (balances held at Federal Reserve Banks) with each other overnight. When a depository institution has surplus balances in its reserve account, it lends to other banks in need of larger balances. In simpler terms, a bank with excess cash, which is often referred to as liquidity, will lend to another bank that needs to quickly raise liquidity. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
• The “core” PCE price index: Is defined as personal consumption expenditures (PCE) prices excluding food and energy prices. The core PCE price index measures the prices paid by consumers for goods and services without the volatility caused by movements in food and energy prices to reveal underlying inflation trends. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED), Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Housing and Human Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U..S Department of the Treasury, Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), U.S. Department of Commerce, data.gov, investor.gov, usa.gov, congress.gov, whitehouse.gov, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Morningstar, The International Monetary Funds (IMF), The World Bank (WB), European Central bank (ECB), Bank of Japan (BOJ), European Parliament, Eurostats, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), World health organization (WHO).

Financial Markets – Recent Prices and Yields, and Weekly, Monthly, and YTD (Table): Bloomberg, Weekly Market Data is in USD and refers to the following indices: Macro & Market Indicators: Volatility (VIX); Oil (WTI); Dollar Index (DXA); Inflation (CPI YoY); Fixed Income: All U.S. Bonds (Bloomberg Aggregate Index); Investment Grade Corporates (Bloomberg US Corporate Index); US High Yield (Bloomberg High Yield Index), Treasuries (ICE BofA Treasury Indices); Equities: U.S. Industrials (Dow Jones Industrial Average); U.S. Large Caps (S&P 500); U.S Tech Equities (Nasdaq Composite); European (MSCI Euope), Asia Pacific (MSCI AP), and Latin America Equities (MSCI LA); Sectors (S&P 500 GICS Sectors) Source: Bloomberg. Fed Funds Rate probabilities, Source: CME FedWatch Tool.  

Important Disclosures:

The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered a customized recommendation, personalized investment advice offer, or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security or investment strategy. The investment strategies mentioned here may not be suitable for everyone. Each investor needs to review an investment strategy for his or her own situation before making any investment decision.

This information is obtained by AMTI from third-party providers from what are considered reliable sources. However, its accuracy, completeness or reliability cannot be guaranteed. Examples provided are for illustrative purposes only and not intended to be reflective of results you can expect to achieve.  All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to changes in market conditions. By using such information, you release and exonerate AMTI from any responsibility for damages, direct or indirect, that may result from such use. Consult the issuer of any investment for the most up-to-date and accurate information.

All references to performance refer to historical data. There could be benchmarks used that do not reflect the performance of funds or other products with similar objectives

Presentation does not apply in jurisdictions where its use has not been approved. Some products or strategies may be complex or unusual. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the products before investing. Investments may have different tax consequences in different jurisdictions and will depend on the circumstances. AMTI does not offer legal or tax advice, please consult your legal, CPA, or other tax professional regarding your situation.

Before investing you must consider carefully the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the underlying funds of your selected portfolio. Please contact AMTI to request the prospectus, private placement memorandum or other offering materials containing this and other important information. Please read these materials carefully before investing.

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Additional Risks:

• Past performance is no guarantee of future returns.
• There is no assurance the Fund will pay distributions in any particular amount, if at all. Any distributions the Fund makes will be at the discretion of the Fund’s Board of Trustees
• There can be no assurance that any Fund or investment will achieve it objectives or avoid substantial losses. Actual results may vary
• The value of the investments varies and therefore the amount received at the time of sale might be higher or lower than was originally invested. Actual returns might be better or worse than the ones shown in this informative material.
• Limited liquidity: Investors should not expect to be able to sell shares regardless of how the Fund performs. Investors should consider that they may not have access to the money they invest for an extended period of time.
• Volatile markets: Because an investor may be unable to sell its shares, an investor will be unable to reduce its exposure in any market downturn
• Funds may invest in securities that are rated below investment grade by rating agencies or that would be rated below investment grade if they were rated. Below investment grade securities, which are often referred to as “junk,” have predominantly speculative characteristics with respect to the issuer’s capacity to pay interest and repay principal. They may also be illiquid and difficult to value

Please review the prospectus or related materials for further details regarding risks and other important information. For additional disclosures and other information regarding AMTI including our customer relationship summary, please visit: https://www.amerantbank.com/personal/investing/