Trading Day: When the chips are down

By Jamie McGeever

ORLANDO, Florida, June 9 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks mostly fell on Tuesday, pressured by a slide in tech and fresh Iran jitters after a U.S. helicopter was shot down, as investors digested strong trade figures from many key economies and turned their attention to U.S. inflation data on Wednesday.

In my column today, I look at the U.S. Treasury's increased use of T-bills to fund the federal budget deficit. Bill issuance is now averaging over $500 billion a week - not an immediate problem, but it could become one if interest rates continue rising or the government is forced to increase supply.

If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today.

1. Trump says Iran downed Apache helicopter, U.S. must react

2. OpenAI files for U.S. IPO after Anthropic as AI giants head to public markets

3. Short-sellers to tread carefully as Musk's SpaceX debuts

4. Automatic for the people? AI as public utility: Mike Dolan

5. SPECIAL REPORT-Under the Trump crypto playbook, the family always wins. Investors don't

Today's Key Market Moves

• STOCKS: Asia mostly up; South Korea +9%, China +3%, Japan +2%. Europe, UK down. S&P 500 -0.3%, Nasdaq -1%. Peru +4%

• SECTORS/SHARES: Nine of S&P 500's 11 sectors rise, with real estate +2%. Tech -2%, energy -1.6%. Super Micro Computer -8%, Qualcomm -6%, Dell -5%. "SOX" chip index -2%. Home Depot +4%.

• FX: USD/JPY still well in the "intervention zone" above 160. Peru's sol +2%, best day in five years; Indonesia's rupiah has biggest rise since September.

• BONDS: U.S. yields -3 bps at short end. 3-year auction has a historically high tail but draws decent demand.

• COMMODITIES/METALS: Oil -3% to a 7-week low, gold -2%.

Today's Talking Points

* Morningstar, man

Morningstar analysts' SpaceX valuation is generating a lot of debate - $63 per share, a 53% discount to the upcoming IPO's offer price. They say they arrived at it via number-crunching in three scenarios rather than plain old skepticism.

In their "moonshot" scenario, SpaceX is worth $1.97 trillion, or $154 a share. That would be 14% above the IPO price, but they attach only a 7% probability to this scenario. Either way, the firm's market debut on Friday will be fascinating - sources say IPO demand is almost four times oversubscribed.

* Emergency hike

Indonesia's central bank stunned markets on Tuesday, delivering an unexpected emergency interest rate hike. Bank Indonesia raised its policy rate 25 basis points to 5.25% in an effort to stabilize the rupiah after it hit a succession of record lows.

This reflects the pressure many emerging markets are under from soaring energy import bills and depreciating domestic currencies, especially in Asia. Sri Lanka recently hiked 100 bps, now Indonesia's inter-meeting move. Who will be next?

* Inflation nations

Key inflation readings for May from some of the world's largest economies will be released on Wednesday, giving investors and policymakers the most up-to-date insight into how much the global energy shock is biting consumers and businesses.

Annual U.S. CPI inflation is expected to cross the 4% mark and wholesale inflation in Japan is expected to hit 5.5%, both for the first time in three years, while PPI inflation in China is seen rising a full percentage point to just under 4%. If the risks to these forecasts are pointing one way, it's probably up.

What could move markets tomorrow?

• Developments in the Middle East

• Japan wholesale inflation (May)

• China PPI and CPI inflation (May)

• Canada interest rate decision

• U.S. Cleveland Fed median inflation (May)

• U.S. CPI inflation (May)

• U.S. Treasury sells $39 billion of 10-year notes at auction

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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Nia Williams)