The United States economy is full of innovation. It has to be. Manufacturing industries that dominated the economy decades ago - textiles, televisions, even automobiles to a large degree - have moved overseas, where labor and materials costs are lower. Yet the U.S. economy, even during the pandemic and the current period of high inflation, has expanded to record levels. If U.S. corporations weren't innovating, creating new products (such as vaccines and AI) and services (such as Zoom calls) and moving into new markets, the domestic economy would not be growing, and capital would not be flooding into the country. The current high level of the U.S. dollar relative to currencies around the world attests to the confidence that global investors have in the durable and innovative U.S. economy.

Tuesday was another risk-off day. Losses for the small-, mid-, and mega-cap indices were between 0.6% to 1.4%. The 11 S&P 500 (SPX) sectors reflected the risk-off mood, with Consumer Staples (XLP +1.1%) the only sector to rise, while Utilities (XLU) and Real Estate (XLRE) booked tiny losses. The biggest losses were from Technology (XLK -1%), with Consumer Discretionary (XLY) and Energy (XLE) both off 0.9%. The market is probably in wait-and-see mode ahead of some monster quarterly reports this week.

Cboe Global Markets is one of the largest global exchange operators. The company offers trading across a wide range of asset classes, including options, futures, U.S. and European equities, exchange-traded products (ETPs), global FX, and products on the VIX index. Cboe maintains the largest options exchange in the U.S. and the largest stock exchange in Europe. The company is headquartered in Chicago, with offices in Kansas City, New York, London, San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong and Ecuador.

Stocks are trading lower on Tuesday morning on some weaker-than-expected economic data as well as growing concerns that AI-related stocks are overbought at this juncture. Specifically, the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index slipped 0.4% in January and was lower than the expected 0.3% drop. The index was down 3.0% over the past six months -- a narrower decline than the preceding six-month period, which fell by 4.1%. Still, with six of the 10 index components being positive over the past six-month period, the index no longer is signaling a recession ahead. Turning to stocks, shares of Nvidia (NVDA) are down today, with the company reporting earnings tomorrow after market close. Despite expectations for positive earnings results, the selloff indicates many investors may be concerned that the shares are due for a pullback following an impressive run this year (which saw shares rise over 50% to an all-time high set last week). Shares of other tech companies which also saw strong gains related to AI prospects are trading lower on overvaluation concerns, including Arm Holdings (ARM), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Super Micro Computer (SMCI).