Today’s Economic Shakers

U.S. equity futures point downwards as gold gains amid global tension…

Volatility levels climbed higher this morning as investors grow increasingly concerned about the impact that geopolitical events will have on the global markets.

With growing tension between the U.S. and Russia joining a wave of concern over North Korea’s accelerating aggressiveness, investors are pulling capital from the higher risk stock market and moving into safe-haven assets such as gold and US Treasuries.

Futures contracts for the leading equity indices were mostly in the red prior to the opening bell, with near-month contracts for the Dow Jones Industrial Average off by 0.10%, while those for the benchmark S&P 500 index were down 0.21%.

Traders and investors may also feel inclined to protect their capital going into the upcoming long Easter weekend, which could send safe haven assets higher.

Gold was up in early morning trading, with futures for the precious metal up 0.25%. The commodity is on a bullish run of late as prices have reached up to the highest levels in nearly 6 months.

Investor concern may also be seen in the CBOE’s Volatility Index (VIX), which saw an increase of over 3% before the opening bell on Wall Street.

The VIX, referred to as the “fear gauge” as it tends to rise during market uncertainty, was hitting 16 this morning, the highest reading for the index since November.

The VIX, which is a measure of the implied volatility of the S&P 500 index, tends to rise as the equity market falls, and vice versa.

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Apple laptops take a tumble from the top of Laptop Magazine’s top-10 list…

When Laptop Magazine announced the results of its annual “10 best and worst brands” rankings, the usual suspect was not at its usual perch at the top.

For the first time since the magazine began publishing its laptop ratings back in 2010, Apple was not in the number one position, instead finding itself all the way down to fifth, where it was tied with Acer.

At the top of the list was the China-based Lenovo, which was awarded the position based on several areas of excellence, including “groundbreaking technologies and vastly improved customer support”, according to the magazine’s report.

Meanwhile, Apple was found to be lacking in several areas that it has traditionally excelled in, including value and design.

The magazine’s editors also base their ranking on a combination of quality, innovation, and support, areas that Apple continued to rate well in.

The report said that the lower ranking for the iPhone maker included issues with the company’s high pricing for its lineup of laptops, as well as with its design decision to reduce the number of ports in its laptops, an issue that has served as a major source of irritation among its users.

Apple saw its stock drop by over 1.2% on Tuesday, though how much the ranking upset contributed to the drop in its stock price is hard to quantify.

Apple was trading slightly higher in pre-market activity on Wednesday morning.