August 13th
Daily Market Commentary
ECONOMIC NEWS
- Retail Sales in the U.S. were reportedly flat in month-over-month terms, slightly below estimates.
- Retail sales excluding autos were reportedly up 0.1%, also below estimates.
- MBA Mortgage Applications as of August 8th were reportedly down 2.7% in the U.S.
- Industrial Production in the Eurozone were reportedly down 0.3% and flat in month-over-month and year-over-year terms, respectively.
Commodities:
- Brent crude fell to its lowest intraday level in 13 months after slower industrial output and a plunge in new credit indicated the recovery is at risk in China, the second-biggest oil user. West Texas Intermediate was steady.
- Copper fell to a six-week low in London after Chinese industrial production unexpectedly slid, stoking concern about the outlook for demand in the biggest consumer of the metal. Zinc and aluminium declined.
- Gold imports by India, the world’s biggest consumer after China, will probably decline for a third year as the government keeps curbs on shipments to prevent the current-account deficit from widening and to support the rupee.
- Gold was little changed below a three-week high in New York as investors weighed an improving U.S. economy against tensions over Ukraine and the Middle East.
Canada:
- Alberta’s pledge to back a new diesel refinery is paving the way for Canada’s biggest-ever debt project financing as more local governments embrace loan backstops to sustain economic growth.
- Statistics Canada will re-publish its flagship labor market report in two days after finding an error in the most recent edition, a move economists said may hurt its reputation.
- Aecon Group swung to a second-quarter loss of $0.26 a share from a profit of $0.11, and revenue fell 15% to $590 million. Results were well off the $0.12 a share profit analysts had expected.
United States:
- U.S. stock futures rose, rebounding from yesterday’s decline, as investors awaited a retail-sales report to gauge the strength of the world’s biggest economy.
- Yahoo! Inc. was ordered by a federal judge to face a lawsuit alleging its scanning of e-mail to target advertising violates users’ privacy rights.
- Macy’s Inc. missed quarterly earnings estimates and trimmed its annual sales forecast, indicating that the back-to-school and Christmas shopping seasons won’t make up for a sluggish first half of the year.
- King Digital Entertainment Plc, maker of the Candy Crush Saga video game, plunged as much as 23% in early trading after posting second-quarter sales that trailed analysts’ estimates and cutting its 2014 outlook.
- Deere & Co., the world’s largest agricultural-equipment maker, cut its fiscal-year profit forecast and said it will scale back production.
International:
- European stocks advanced on better- than-forecast profit reports from EON SE and Swiss Life Holding AG.
- Mark Carney said global political risks and the euro region’s weakness might weigh on Britain’s recovery as he insisted that the Bank of England won’t raise interest rates too soon or too fast.
- Barclays Plc faces costs of as much as $2 billion for its alleged rigging of currency markets, lying to clients about its U.S. darkpool and mis-selling interest-rate swaps, Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. said.
- China’s broadest measure of new credit plunged to the lowest since the global financial crisis and industrial output unexpectedly slowed, adding risks to growth as the government grapples with a property slump.
- Japan’s economy contracted the most since the record earthquake three years ago as consumption and investment plunged after an April sales-tax increase aimed at curbing the world’s biggest debt burden.
- Tencent Holdings Ltd. posted a 59% surge in second-quarter profit as Asia’s biggest internet company offered more games and shopping to the billion users of its WeChat and QQ messaging applications.
*All information is taken from Bloomberg, unless otherwise noted.
