Thursday May 11 Daily Market Primer
- Market quiet this week
- BOE talks rate hike, EU upgrades growth
- Moody’s cuts Canadian banks
The
Daily Market Primer is back after a break this week, since I know how hard it is to find financial news
on the Internet J. US
markets were quiet, stocks barely budged and treasury yields rose by a few
basis points.
S&P
500 this week:
Yesterday,
stocks were mixed
as the Dow dropped slightly while the S&P and NASDAQ, both hovering at
record highs, rose slightly. On the political front, fallout continues
from President Trump’s firing of FBI director Comey earlier this week, but
so far it hasn’t had much effect on the markets. Markets are mixed
overseas and US futures are pointing to a down open.
LAST
|
CHANGE
|
% CHANGE
|
|
20,943.11
|
-32.67
|
-0.16%
|
|
6,129.14
|
8.56
|
0.14%
|
|
2,399.63
|
2.71
|
0.11%
|
|
1,399.59
|
7.73
|
0.56%
|
|
2,743.11
|
-4.00
|
-0.15%
|
|
394.66
|
-1.79
|
-0.45%
|
|
Nikkei
225
|
19,961.55
|
61.46
|
0.31%
|
UK:
FTSE 100
|
7,380.65
|
-4.59
|
-0.06%
|
CBOE
Volatility
|
10.54
|
0.58
|
5.82%
|
Australia:
S&P/ASX 200
|
5,878.30
|
2.90
|
0.05%
|
3,061.50
|
8.72
|
0.29%
|
|
25,125.55
|
110.13
|
0.44%
|
|
Europe
Dow
|
1,728.06
|
-13.36
|
0.01%
|
India:
S&P BSE Sensex
|
30,250.98
|
2.81
|
-0.77%
|
France:
CAC 40
|
5,378.33
|
-22.13
|
-0.41%
|
Germany:
DAX
|
12,724.52
|
-32.94
|
-0.26%
|
Italy:
FTSE MIB
|
21,461.79
|
-91.02
|
-0.42%
|
Spain:
IBEX 35
|
10,868.40
|
-166.40
|
-1.51%
|
0.899
|
0/32
|
||
1.351
|
0/32
|
||
1.925
|
2/32
|
||
2.398
|
7/32
|
||
3.038
|
2/32
|
||
-0.664
|
0/32
|
||
0.435
|
-4/32
|
||
47.92
|
0.59
|
1.25%
|
|
50.81
|
0.59
|
1.17%
|
|
3.408
|
0.028
|
0.83%
|
|
377.69
|
3.13
|
0.83%
|
|
2388.75
|
-6.5
|
-0.27%
|
The
Bank of England met today and announced that it may need to raise interest
rages before late 2019, which is Brexit is scheduled to happen, and which is
sooner than has been expected, and forecasted an inflation rate of 2.8% this
year. UK industrial production fell by .5%, dropping for the third month in a
row in March, indicating that Brexit may be starting to drag down the
economy. Nevertheless, the BOE is trying to be optimistic, saying that
its forecast assumes “that the adjustment to the United Kingdom’s new
relationship with the European Union is smooth”. Meanwhile, the
European Commission said euro area growth this year will be slightly stronger
than previously forecast, at 1.7%.
Moody’s
downgraded the debt of six big Canadian banks by one level, citing increasing consumer
debt and high housing prices as the reason for the change.
SNAP
got crushed yesterday on disappointing daily user metrics, which grew (only) 36%
year over year, down from 52% last year.. The stock dropped about 25%.
Steamroller Facebook is coming after them by copying nearly every feature of
Snapchat in Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger http://bit.ly/FBCopies.
Here’s
the news:
Super Thursday
At 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time the Bank of England
will publish it latest monetary policy decision and update its
inflation forecast. The announcement will be followed by a press conference with Governor Mark Carney.
While no economist surveyed by Bloomberg expects a change in rates today,
there is disagreement among investors on the inflation outlook,
with Mike Riddell, a U.K. fixed-income portfolio manager at Allianz
Global Investors, saying the bank could surprise markets by lowering its
forecast.
Euro-growth
The European Commission said that growth
in the euro area will be stronger than previously forecast, adding that
some risks to the outlook have eased. The EU also raised its growth forecast
for the United Kingdom, but warned of the fallout from Brexit uncertainty and faster inflation.
Figures published in the U.K. this morning showing the deficit in goods and
services jumped to 10.5 billion pounds ($14 billion) in the first three
months of the year, suggest that trade contributed to the country's sharp slowdown in the first quarter of the
year.
Oh, Canada
Six of Canada's largest banks had their credit ratings downgraded by Moody's
Investors Service as concerns over the housing market and consumer
indebtedness have left lenders vulnerable. The troubles at Home Capital Group Inc. have
increased investor focus on the housing market north of the border,
with the S&P/TSX Bank Composite Index down more than 7.5 percent from its
March peak.
Markets still quiet
Overnight
the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.3 percent, while Japan's Topix index added
0.1 percent. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.2 percent lower at 5:55 a.m., with
positive results from UniCredit SpA failing to lift the wider
market. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.1 percent. SpA
Comey fallout
The
Bank of England meets. The central bank is expected to keep policy on hold at
Wednesday's meeting, with economists on the lookout for any changes to the
BOE's inflation forecast. The decision will cross the wires at 7 a.m. ET.The Reserve Bank of New Zealand holds. New Zealand's central bank held its key interest rate at a record-low 1.75% and reduced its inflation outlook for 2018. The New Zealand dollar is down by 1.3% at 0.6847 against the dollar. Snap craters after its first earnings report. Shares of the social-media company tumbled by as much as 25% following its first quarterly report as a publicly traded company. Snap lost $0.20 a share on revenue of $149.6 million. Both numbers missed Wall Street estimates. Tesla is accepting orders for its new solar roof. The roof will be available in four different shingles and cost $21.85 a square foot. A short seller accuses Apple supplier AAC of "dubious accounting." AAC's stock tumbled by as much as 14% in Hong Kong after the short seller Gotham City accused the company of practicing "dubious accounting" methods, Reuters says. "The Board vigorously denies the allegations in the report and considers the information contained therein to be inaccurate and misleading," AAC's chairman, Koh Boon Hwee, said in a filing. Aetna ditches Obamacare. "We will not offer on- or off-exchange individual plans in Delaware or Nebraska for 2018, and at this time have completely exited the exchanges," Aetna representative TJ Crawford said in a statement on Wednesday. Barclays CEO apologizes. Speaking at his bank's annual meeting in London, Barclays CEO Jes Staley said he was sorry for trying to unmask a whistle-blower, DealBook reports. Stock markets around the world are mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+0.4%) led in Asia, and Germany's DAX (+0.1%) clings to gains in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down 0.2% near 2,395. Earnings reporting slows down. Kohl's and Macy's report ahead of the opening bell, while Nordstrom releases its quarterly results after markets close.
US economic data is light. PPI and initial jobless
claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down by 2
basis points at 2.39%.
|