Pre-Market Report – Tuesday 13 October: US markets mixed in quiet session - SPI up 9 - Gold eases - Lithium depressed - US earnings beckon

And, uh, a relatively quiet-ish night, I guess, in the US last night.

It was Columbus Day.

Uh, the bond markets are closed on Columbus Day, so we didn't have a lot of action there, obviously.

For the record, the Dow Jones was up 196 points, or 0.4 of a percent, 51,851, ahead of US reporting season, which kicks off tonight.

The Nasdaq down 0.4 of a percent, 120 points to 27,246.

The S&P 500 down four measly points, 7807, down 0.06 of a percent.

The Russell 2000 down 0.5 of a percent, 13 points to 2794.

And the VIX volatility picking up 2.4% to 15.2.

The SOXX Semi index down 2.7% and MAG7 up 0.3 of a percent.

US bond yields, obviously with the Treasury market closed for Columbus Day, unchanged.

Meanwhile, Asian markets yesterday, China down 1.8%.

Japan was closed for yet another holiday.

Hong Kong up 0.3. European markets slightly firmer.

STOXX 600 up 0.7, FTSE up one, Germany up 0.8 of a percent.

We are, of course, pregnant with earnings news coming out from the financials.

First up, as far as stocks go last night, Apple a day up 1.3%, Microsoft up 1.1, Amazonians down 1.1, Alphabetti Spaghetti up 0.3 of a percent, Meta up 3.4%, Netflix up 0.4, SpaceX up 0.5. CrowdStrike, though, fell 4.4%.

Chip stocks remain well and truly on the nose.

Nvidia down 1.3, Broadcom down 1.9, ASML down 1.7, Intel was down, uh, 3.2%, and US software stocks were easier.

Well, they were actually a bit mixed.

We had Monday on a Monday down 4.7, Atlassian up 0.5, HubSpot down 2.2, Adobe down 1.7, but we did see some gains in Shopify, which was up 4.9%.

In CDIs and dual listings, Life360 up 0.3, James Hardie down 1.4, Block down 0.5, ResMed up 2%, Telix up 0.7 of a percent.

US financials, uh, not doing a lot ahead of results.

Wells Fargo down 0.3, Goldman's down 0.2, and, uh, Bank of America up 0.5 of a percent.

As far as commodities go last night, well, we did see the oil price pick up.

This was on the back of more Houthi, uh, action in Saudi Arabia.