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For the first time in a while, we’re looking at market volatility lasting more than a session or two. Despite splendid stock market performance year to date overall, highs have normally been met with short pullbacks and resets. Off mid-July highs for the year, however, we’ve been a bit more bipolar — and decidedly to the downside since the start of August. Booking profits could certainly explain part of this, and re-evaluating P/E ratios is likely another part, but the rocket boosters to take the markets higher in the near term look temporarily exhausted.To wit, the Dow — after gaining +400 points in yesterday’s session — are giving back -266 points in today’s pre-market, with the Nasdaq -123 points. The S&P 500 is down -34 and the small-cap Russell 2000 -25 points. Aside from Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers out Thursday morning, we don’t see economic data with as much potential impact as we’ve seen over the past couple weeks. This is without mentioning marquee names in Q2 have already reported earnings, and we don’t face the music of a new Fed meeting for another six weeks. Finally, August trading volumes are traditionally way down until after Labor Day.We did get a June Trade Deficit ahead of today’s open, reaching -$65.5 billion — deeper than the -$65.0 billion expected but a nice improvement from the previous month’s -$68.98 billion, as well as the session-low -$80.85 billion a year ago. The all-time trade deficit, for a frame of reference, collapsed to -$102.5 billion back in early 2022. The best figure we’ve seen in the past year came in March, -$60 billion, which was the narrowest deficit since September 2020.Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker this morning stated he believes the Fed can afford to be patient and hold current interest rates — the highest in over 20 years — steady, indicating a potential pause at the Fed’s meeting September 19-20. He wet on to say that he does not expect a rate cut on the horizon, but does see a soft landing. Harker expects a return to +2% inflation by 2025.United Parcel Service (UPS Quick QuoteUPS - Free Report) has just posted its 13th straight positive earnings surprise this morning, with earnings of $2.54 per share beating the Zacks consensus by 3 cents (though off the year-ago earnings of $3.25 per share). Revenues in the quarter reached $22.06 billion, -3.6% from expectations and lower than the $24.71 billion in the June quarter a year ago. The company reached a labor agreement with the Teamsters union a couple weeks ago, something UPS’ competition still needs to accomplish, but shares are down -4% in early trading on lowered guidance — roughly break-even year to date. For more on UPS’ earnings, click here.Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY Quick QuoteLLY - Free Report) outperformed both top and bottom lines in its Q2 numbers this morning: earnings of $2.11 per share on sales of $8.31 billion surpassed expectations by +6.57% and +10.05%, respectively. Sales of its diabetes drug Mounjaro helped spark quarterly growth, and shares of LLY are up +9% in pre-market trading so far today, adding to its +24% gains year to date. This marks only the fourth quarter in the last 10 where Lilly has outperformed expectations. For more on LLY’s earnings, click here.Restaurant Brands (QSR Quick QuoteQSR - Free Report) , the parent of Burger King, Tim Horton’s and Popeye’s, among others, also beat expectations on both top and bottom lines this morning: earnings of 85 cents per share beat the Zacks consensus by +11.84% and revenues of $1.78 billion outpaced estimates by +1.65%. This is the third quarterly beat for the company in the past four quarters, though pre-market trading took shares down on the news, but look to be on the rise at this hour. For more on QSR’s earnings, click here.After today’s open, we’ll see new results on June Wholesale Inventories, which are expected to slip -0.3% from 0.0% posted for the previous month. Then, after today’s closing bell, we’ll see more quarterly earnings results from EV contender Rivian (RIVN Quick QuoteRIVN - Free Report) and communication tech firm Twilio (TWLO Quick QuoteTWLO - Free Report) , among others. As we said before: relatively low impact, potentially. But still plenty of grist for the mill.Questions or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>>