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The major indexes were sharply lower near noon as investors react to the release of key inflation data and recent trade policy developments. The Federal Reserve’s key inflation measure, the core personal consumption expenditures price index, showed a 0.4% increase for the month of February, putting the 12-month inflation rate at a hotter-than-expected 2.8%.

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Looking to commodities, gold prices are fractionally higher, continuing their rally and bringing the record price to above $3,100. Meanwhile, oil prices are lower, though still near one-month highs.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Lululemon (LULU) reported better-than-expected Q4 results and provided guidance for Q1 and FY25

• Investors are awaiting the first trade for CoreWeave (CRWV) after its IPO was priced at $40 per share and cut in size

• Nippon Steel (NPSCY) and U.S. Steel (X) are in active talks about a deal, Semafor reports

• Argan (AGX) reported year-over-year increases in Q4 earnings and revenue, prompting an upgrade to Buy at Lake Street

• Rocket Lab (RKLB) and Stoke Space Technologies were awarded a $5.6B ceiling Air Force contract 

 2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Jefferies (AMAT) to Buy from Hold

• Lululemon (LULU) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform

• Jefferies downgraded KLA Corp. (KLAC) to Hold from Buy

• FBN Securities initiated coverage of Roku (ROKU) with an Outperform rating

• A combination of Etsy (ETSY) and eBay (EBAY) would make sense and be worth $85 per share, says Piper Sandler

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• The Trump administration is being nudged by the Metals Company (TMC) to disregard The International Seabed Authority and grant the company a license to start mining in international waters as soon as 2027, NYT reports

• The U.S. Department of Defense plans to terminate a plan to use Oracle (ORCL) software to manage its civilian workforce as part of the Pentagon’s cost-cutting efforts, Bloomberg says

• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening an engineering analysis into 2.2M Honda (HMC) vehicles over issues related to its engine restarting, Reuters reports

• SoftBank (SFTBY) is planning to establish industrial parks across the U.S. featuring AI-equipped factories, Nikkei Asia reports

• Silicon Motion (SIMO) is joining the AI humanoid robotics supply chain and expects significant growth from this sector over the next five years, DigiTimes says