FOREX: Higher US Yields Provide Greenback Reprieve

• US TSY 9Y-11M AUCTION: NON-COMP BIDS $87 MLN FROM $39.000 BLN TOTAL

• Stocks are trading firmer at midday, off lows with the DJIA lagging SPX Eminis and Nasdaq Wednesday. Currently, the DJIA trades up 26.09 at 41459.57, SPX eminis +47.25 at 5624.25, Nasdaq +285.23 at 17721.33.
• Information Technology and Communication Services sector shares led gainers by midday, chip makers supporting the former with Micron Technology +7.54%, NVIDIA Corp +6.18%, Intel +4.47%, Advanced Micro Devices +3.62% and Broadcom I+3.42%.
• Interactive media and entertainment shares supported the Communication Services sector with Netflix +1.96%, Meta Platforms +1.94%, Take-Two Interactive +1.06% and Alphabet +0.84%.
• On the flipside, Consumer Staples and Health Care sectors underperformed in early trade, leading laggers in Consumer Staples included Brown-Forman -6.69%, Estee Lauder -4.80%, Hershey -3.49% and Mondelez International -3.35%.
• Meanwhile, pharmaceuticals and services shares weighed on the Health Care sector: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals -4.43%, Universal Health Services -4.42%, Baxter International -3.93% and DaVita -3.80%.

Taoiseach (PM) Micheál Martin is meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office (live here). Trump says "Irish took our pharmaceutical and other companies away through taxation". 

• Trump asked by Irish reporter about Irish "housing crisis". Trump says: "You know why there is a housing crisis. Because they are doing so well"."
• Trump: "The EU was set up in order to take advantage of the United States". Including Ireland, yes"
• Trump: 'Tax policy would stop Ireland from taking business'.
• Says there is still a "massive deficit" with Ireland and "We are going to even that out".
• At the start of his visit, Martin acknowledged "I am very, very conscious that in a very challenging world, thousands and thousands of jobs depend on the economic relationship between the United States and Ireland," 
• Reuters: "Ireland's Central Statistics Office said the deficit was a record 50 billion euros ($54.2 billion) last year. Using a different measure, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis put it at $87 billion, ahead of Canada and Germany and behind only Vietnam, Mexico and China."