August 10th, 2016

Daily Market Commentary

 

ECONOMIC NEWS

  • MBA Mortgage Applications in the US were up 7.1%.
  • EIA Crude Oil storage figures listed a 1.05M increase, opposed to an expected drawdown of over 4M barrels.
  • The Q2 Unemployment Rate in Portugal was quoted at 10.8%.

Commodities:

  • Oil declined for a second day as weekly U.S. industry data showed crude stockpiles expanded and Saudi Arabia was said to have raised July production to a record.
  • Gold climbed for a second day as the dollar weakened, with investors weighing the outlook for U.S. interest rates this year.
  • Copper advanced from its lowest close in about a month as metals gained after speculation that the Federal Reserve will be slow to raise interest rates weakened the U.S. dollar, boosting demand for commodities as an alternative investment.

Canada:

  • Consumer balance sheets in Canada’s oil-producing provinces declined for the third consecutive quarter as the commodity rout rolls on. Saskatchewan delinquencies rose 12 percent to 3.4 percent. Those delinquencies outpace a national rate of 2.7 percent, a 3.6 percent increase from the previous year.
  • Canada faces its heaviest month of debt issuance in seven years as the government takes advantage of borrowing costs near record lows to stimulate the country’s stalling economy.

United States:

  • U.S. index futures indicated a lull as the earnings season approached its end, with stocks hovering near an all-time high.
  • Apple Inc. is preparing the first significant overhaul of its MacBook Pro laptop line in over four years, according to people familiar with the matter, using one of its older products to help reverse two quarters of sliding sales.

International:

  • European shares slipped for the first time in six days, led by declines in utilities after EON SE earnings and energy producers.
  • The Bank of England said Wednesday it will deal with a 52 million-pound shortfall ($60.8 million) in an operation on Tuesday at a later date as it made no changes to the 60 billion-pound measure. The statement came a day after the BOE failed to buy enough gilts to reach its goal at an operation — the first such shortfall since it initially started QE in 2009 — as investors proved unwilling to part with their holdings of longer-dated bonds.
  • EON SE posted a first-half loss after taking 3.8 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in charges linked to the listing next month of its Uniper unit. Its shares slumped the most in more than six weeks.
  • Most Asian stocks fell as Japanese shares retreated amid a stronger yen, while concerns about elevated valuations dragged equities in India and Indonesia lower.
  • China’s official bad-loan ratio held at 1.75 percent in the second quarter after almost three years of increases, suggesting some progress as President Xi Jinping’s officials try to defuse risks from the nation’s explosion in credit.
  • State Grid Corp. of China’s hopes of buying one of Australia’s biggest electricity distributors may be slipping away amid national security concerns and a protectionist backlash against foreign ownership of critical infrastructure. Government-owned State Grid, the world’s largest utility, and Hong Kong’sCheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. are vying to buy Ausgrid, which supplies 1.6 million homes in and around Sydney and may fetch more than A$10 billion ($7.7 billion).

*All information is taken from Bloomberg, unless otherwise noted.