The major benchmarks are up roughly between 2%-3% at midday. President Trump has tempered his comments saying that he does not intend to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. He also suggested that the triple digit number he mentioned for tariffs for China will not stick and will likely be lowered. Corporate earnings are pouring in. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is 4.33%. Oil is at $62 per barrel. Gold is down.

One way to make lemonade from lemons in a broad stock-market pullback is to weed out the losers from an investment portfolio, harvesting tax-loss carryforwards along the way. These losses can be used to offset future capital gains that may be generated when the stock market once again is in an uptrend. It takes discipline to sell stocks, however. Many times, investors are reluctant to sell stocks that are down in the dumps due to hopes that a turnaround is coming. In this case, an alternative strategy can be to sell losers and buy a similar stock or related industry ETF in an attempt to capture upside down the road. But beware of the tax rules. The so-called wash-sale rule from the IRS prohibits selling an investment for a loss and replacing it with the same or "substantially identical" investment 30 days before or after the sale. Here's a list of stocks on the Argus HOLD list that have fallen the farthest from their 52-week highs and could be tax-loss candidates.

Foot Locker is an athletic shoe, apparel, equipment and accessories retailer with about 2,500 stores in about 26 countries and over 200 franchised locations in the Middle East and Asia. The company is moving its headquarters to St. Petersburg, FL from New York, NY in late 2025. It currently employs more than 14,000 full-time employees

Monday Tee Up: Tariffs, Jobs, Earnings Newly imposed U.S. tariffs (and the responses to them by the impacted countries) combine with the jobs report (due to hit the tape on Friday) and the ongoing flood or earnings reports to set the stage for a busy week. Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3%, the S&P 500 fell 1.0%, and the Nasdaq dropped 1.6%. So far in 2025, the DJIA is up 5%, the S&P is up 3%, and the Nasdaq is up 2%. Over the weekend, President Trump imposed tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada. Canada announced their own retaliatory tariffs and, as of this writing, Mexico intends to respond. China said it will file a complaint with the World Trade Organization. The markets likely will experience some volatility as Wall Street assesses the impact of the tariffs. Items to consider are possible increased prices, supply-chain hiccups, changes to consumer spending patterns, and an uptick in overall inflation. Meanwhile, the earnings flow continues. On Monday, Palantir, Tyson Foods, and Clorox are among the companies that will report; on Tuesday, Alphabet, Advanced Micro, Merck, Amgen, and PepsiCo; on Wednesday, Novo Nordisk, Qualcomm, Uber, and Disney; on Thursday, Amazon.com, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Honeywell, and ConocoPhillips; and on Friday, Fortive, Kimco, and Cboe Global. Some 178 (or 36%) of the S&P 500 companies have reported for last quarter. Earnings so far are showing 12% growth from the prior-year quarter. That compares to a 9% growth rate last quarter. The Financial sector has had the most companies report, and the growth rate so far is 13%, according to Refinitiv. Argus forecasts S&P 500 EPS growth in 2025 at 12%. For 2026, we forecast 11. On the economic calendar, the Nonfarm Payrolls report for January comes out on Friday. Though that report will get the most attention, the Call of the Week from Argus' Chief Economist Chris Graja, CFA, is Nonfarm Productivity. Chris expects growth to top 2%, while the consensus is 1.7%. Chris offers the following thoughts. 'While the jobs report provides a timely assessment of how the economy is doing, productivity, though volatile, is the best measure of a country's long-term prosperity and of workers ability to earn more than the inflation rate. Worker prosperity will dominate the American political landscape for the next four years. Productivity growth also will reflect the degree of success from the billions being spent on Artificial Intelligence.' Last week, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged, as expected. Mortgage rates dipped one basis point, with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage now at 6.95%, according to FreddieMac. Gas prices fell a penny to an average of $3.10 per gallon for regular gas. The Atlanta Fed GDPNow indicator is forecasting for 1Q and calls for expansion of 2.9%. The Cleveland Fed Inflation Nowcast is forecasting for January and is at 2.85%. The next Fed rate decision is on March 19, with odds at 17% for a rate cut, according to the CME FedWatch rate tool. After that, the next meeting is in early May.