December 30th

Daily Market Commentary

 

ECONOMIC NEWS

  • The Redbook Index, which measures same-store sales growth to general merchandisers in the U.S., was reportedly down 0.5% and up 5.4% in month-over-month and year-over-year terms, respectively.
  • The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices were reportedly up 4.5% in year-over-year terms, above estimates of 4.4%
  • The M3 Money Supply in the Eurozone was reportedly up 2.7% and 3.1% in quarterly and year-over-year terms, respectively.

Commodities:

  • Gold rebounded from the biggest decline in a week as a retreat in stocks revived demand for an alternative investment. Platinum and silver advanced.
  • Oil fell to the lowest since 2009 in New York and London amid speculation that U.S. crude inventories will stay at the highest for the time of year in at least three decades.
  • U.S. oil drillers idled the most rigs since 2012 as prices slide below $55 a barrel to the lowest level in five years and a fight for market share with OPEC intensifies.

Canada:

  • Songbird Estates Plc investors holding about 32 per cent of the company’s publicly traded shares support a takeover bid for the owner of London’s Canary Wharf financial district. Investors owning the remaining stock have until Jan. 29 to tender their shares in a 350 pence-a-share cash bid by Qatar Investment Authority and Brookfield Property Partners LP, according to an offer document published today. Songbird must respond to the bid within 14 days. (Globe)
  • Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was the top investment banking adviser on Canadian mergers and acquisitions in 2014, as oil and gas and cross-border deals drove take-overs to a seven-year high.

United States

  • U.S. stock-index futures fell, indicating benchmark indexes will slip from records.
  • Activist investment firm Corvex Management LP reported a 7.1 percent stake in American Realty Capital Properties Inc., the U.S. real estate investment trust that has plunged since disclosing accounting errors two months ago.
  • Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose at a slower pace in the year ended in October, putting the market on better footing heading into 2015.
  • U.S. investigators are seeking to settle a probe early next year into Morgan Stanley’s creation and sale of mortgage-backed securities before 2008’s financial crisis, the New York Times reported, citing a person briefed on the matter.

International:

  • European stocks fell from a three-week high, with equities heading for their first December decline since 2008 and investors continued to weigh the implications of early Greek elections.
  • U.K. house-price growth slowed to its weakest in more than a year in December, adding to evidence that the market for residential property is cooling.
  • Asian stocks fell on low volume, dragging the regional benchmark equities gauge down from a three-week high, as energy producers dropped and Japanese shares slipped on their final trading day of the year.
  • Japan will cut the tax rate on corporate income by 3.29 percentage points over two years to encourage companies to raise wages and boost investment, at a cost of about 400 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in revenue over the period.
  • China’s stocks fell, paring the benchmark index’s biggest monthly advance since April 2007, as technology shares slumped and a gauge of utilities dropped after surging to five-year highs.
  • The Indian government issued an executive order to make it easier for companies to buy land and eventually replace a law that has hindered manufacturing and constrained economic growth.

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