Cloudflare provides cloud-based network services that protect internet apps and help them to run faster -- without requiring clients to add hardware, install new software, or change code. Cloudflare's unified control plane across on-premise, cloud, hybrid, and SaaS data infrastructure environments ensures the security, reliability, and performance of its enterprise customers' external data infrastructure (websites, applications, and application program interfaces); internal networks and devices (identity and access); DevOps; and consumer applications. Internet sites powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network. The company seeks to relieve clients of the cost and complexity of managing their own network hardware. Some 48% of the company's revenue is generated outside of the U.S. Cloudflare was founded in 2010 and went public on September 12, 2019, at $15 per share.

Stocks are mixed at Tuesday midday with the Nasdaq up more than 1% while the Dow is lower. Inflation slowed last month in the first measure showing the possible impact of President Trump's tariffs. CPI came in at 2.3% for April year-over-year compared to 2.4% in March. On a month-over-month basis, prices increased 0.2%, above the 0.1% decrease seen in March but lower than the 0.3% expected by economists. Core CPI was 2.8% for April matching March. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is 4.47%. Oil is up 1% at $63 per barrel.

Cloudflare is a software company based in San Francisco, California, that offers security and web performance offerings by utilizing a distributed, serverless content delivery network, or CDN. The firm’s edge computing platform, Workers, leverages this network by providing clients the ability to deploy, and execute code without maintaining servers.

Next week, the business channels and other forms of financial media will be littered with all sorts of investment professionals attempting to be economists and Federal Reserve experts. Yet no one expects a change in the fed funds rate at the May 7 FOMC meeting. Still, that changes quickly for the June 18 meeting. In June, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, there is a 61% chance of a 25-basis-point (bps) cut from the current 4.25%-4.5% target rate. The last cut was in December 2024. With the two-year Treasury yield down to 3.67% from 4.4% early in 2025, the Fed finds itself behind the curve (again) by 58 to 83 bps. Going out to the last 2025 FOMC meeting, the market sees the fed funds target 100 bps lower, at 3.25-4.25%. Elsewhere, we believe that the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) have completed a five-wave, parabolic, blow-off top and could see some decent downside in the months to come. The advance from April 9 until April 21 was steep, reminiscent of a wave-five asymptotic top. The market saw an ugly bearish cloud-cover candlestick reversal the next day on massive volume, common after a parabolic move. It certainly looks like GLD has benefited from the weak U.S. Dollar Index that started in January. It appears the greenback has traced out a five-wave decline and is close to tracing out a false breakdown. In addition, the COT for the dollar is bullish, a signal that has been very reliable in recent years. It's difficult to say how far GLD will drop. We look for a decline at least to the 257-275 region, where there is a cluster of support. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)