Wall Street stuck in the red at midday, while cruises and other reopening plays prove the exception

12:40pm: Small-caps the bright spot as the major indices fall The Dow continued to sag, dropping 133 points, 0.4%, to 33,039 at midday. The Nasdaq Composite lost 44 points, 0.3%, to 13,016, and the S&P 500 declined 17 points, 0.4%, to 3,954. "Markets are limping to quarter-end with little enthusiasm it seems, although small caps are showing some early promise in the US after a tough session on Monday," IG Chief Market Analyst Chris Beauchamp wrote Tuesday. "While tomorrow brings the ADP payroll report as a lead-in to Friday’s non-farms report, there is little enthusiasm for the latter given that it falls on a bank holiday. Instead we have a week of few major catalysts, with two weeks to go until the beginning of the next earnings season." Small-cap stocks fared better, as the Russell 2000 rose 1.3% to 2,186.  Stocks considered reopening plays generally did well, including Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH), shares of which jumped 2.8% to $26.94. 10am: Proactive North America headlines: Namaste Technologies Inc (CVE:N) (OTCMKTS:NXTTF) (FRA:M5BQ) sees its 4Q revenue surge 85% to C$7.2M on cannabis product sales Fury Gold Mines Limited (TSE:FURY) (NYSEAMERICAN:FURY) (FRA:AUN1)  hits high grade mineralization from step out holes at Eau Claire in Quebec Viscount Mining Corp (CVE:VML) (OTCQB:VLMGF) (FRA:7VM) kicks off second of three-phase drill program at Silver Cliff Aurelius Minerals  Inc (CVE:AUL) (OTCMKTS:AURQF) (FRA:1GA) pleased with Aureus West drill results, which extend mineralization outside current inferred resource Mojave Jane Brands Inc (CSE:JANE) (OTCMKTS:HHPHF) (FRA:0HCN) successfully rebrands to Mojave Brands Tiziana Life Sciences PLC (NASDAQ:TLSA, LON:TILS) shares shoot up after receiving FDA sign-off for nasally administered monoclonal antibody to treat a person with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis First Cobalt Corp (CVE:FCC) (OTCQX:FTSSF) (FRA:18P) strikes exclusivity deal with lender over US$45M debt financing for refinery plans CytoDyn Inc's (OTCQB:CYDY) leronlimab decreases mortality by 82% among critically ill coronavirus patients after two weeks in CD12 trial VolitionRx Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:VNRX) appoints industry veterans Kim Nguyen and Richard Brudnick to its board of directors Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc (TSE:TBP) (OTCQB:TBPMF) (FRA:JAM1) gets Health Canada approval to file clinical trial application for ARDS-003 study on coronavirus patients Psyched Wellness Ltd (CSE:PSYC) (OTCQB:PSYCF) (FRA:5U9) initiates study on its AME-1 extract for gut health Canntab Therapeutics Limited (CSE:PILL) (OTCQB:CTABF) (FRA:TBF1) receives export license from Health Canada Vox Royalty Corp (TSXV:VOX) (OTCMKTS:VOXCF) to acquire royalty on Bullabulling gold project 9.40am: Wall Street opens in red Wall Street’s main indices opened in the red on Tuesday morning as investors remained cautious amid rising bond yields and the fallout from Archegos Capital. Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.14% at 33,126 while the S&P 500 dropped 0.28% to 3,960 and the Nasdaq fell 0.6% to 12,980. Stocks are under pressure after yields on 10-year US treasuries recently rose to their highest level in 14 months. Meanwhile, shares in GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) were back in play in early deals, rising 2.5% to US$186.20 following news it has recruited a former Amazon exec as its new chief growth officer. 7:55am: Wall Street heads for lower open The main indices on Wall Street are headed for a softer open on Tuesday as the Archegos Capital hedge fund liquidation continues to make waves alongside rising bond yields. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is tipped to shed 47 points at 33,124 while the S&P 500 is expected to retreat 14 points to 3,957. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is seen tumbling 103 points to 12,863. “Rising yields are once again set to drive market direction, with the growth stocks’ valuations being called into question. Rotation into value looks set to be the trade of the day,” suggested OANDA’s Sophie Griffiths. Swissquote’s Ipek Ozkardeskaya said the Archegos story continues to dominate the headlines, “as investors question whether the fall of the secretive hedge fund and its financial implications are done and dusted, or is it just the tip of the iceberg, that there are more players out there that have super leveraged positions, that could also go wrong and result in a similar fallout”. “If we start putting the pieces of the puzzle together, the GameStop saga and the short-squeeze frenzy, the Archegos capital fall, abnormal price rallies in cryptocurrencies and other obscure assets, there is a lesson to be taken. There is too much liquidity in the system, and separate occurrences are a clear sign that the financial markets are fuming, even though there is not an immediate systemic risk to the financial system right now,” Ozkardeskaya said. Talking of GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME), the video games retailer has appointed Elliott Wilke as its chief growth officer. Wilke previously held a number of positions at online retail giant Amazon Inc 9NASDAQ:AMZN). "At GameStop, Mr. Wilke will oversee growth strategies and marketing, with a focus on increasing customer loyalty and growing the reach of Power Up Rewards and Game Informer," the company’s announcement said. As far as economic data are concerned, the focus in the US today is likely to be the Conference Board’s consumer survey for March, according to Daiwa Capital Markets. “Daiwa America chief economist Mike Moran expects that the disbursement of another round of rebate checks and the expansion of supplemental unemployment benefits probably brightened consumers’ collective mood in March. That said, the expected reading of 96.0 – a lift of 4.7pts – is not especially impressive, as it trails other observations in the current cycle (e.g. 101.4 in October) and is far below the pre-pandemic high of 132.6 in February 2020,” Daiwa said. Three things to watch for on Tuesday: The earnings diary for Tuesday will see numbers from athletic apparel firm Lululemon Athletica Inc (NASDAQ:LULU) as well as pet food seller Chewy Inc (NYSE:CHWY) and the maker of Cholula Hot Sauce McCormick & Co (NYSE:MKC) Also of interest will be PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) after the firm rolled out a cryptocurrency checkout feature to its US customers On the macro front, US house price index data could be of interest alongside speeches from a number of the Fed’s representatives