February 26th 2015

Daily Market Commentary

 

ECONOMIC NEWS

  • The Consumer Price Index in Canada was reportedly down 0.2% and up 1% in month-over-month and year-over-year terms, respectively. Both figures were slightly above estimates.
  • The Bank of Canada Consumer Price Index core was reportedly up 0.2% and 2.2% in month-over-month and year-over-year estimates, which were also both slightly above estimates.
  • The Consumer Price Index in the U.S. was reportedly down 0.7% and down 0.1% in month-over-month and year-over-year terms, respectively.
  • The housing price index in the U.S. was reportedly up 0.8% in month-over-month terms.

Commodities:

  • Oil in New York fell for the sixth time in seven days as record U.S. stockpiles drove the American benchmark to the biggest discount to its European counterpart in more than a year.
  • Gold climbed to the highest in a week after Chinese buyers returned from holidays and investors speculated that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low. Platinum rose the most this month.

Canada:

  • Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the country’s fifth-largest lender by assets, raised its quarterly dividend 2.9 percent after posting fiscal first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates.
  • Retailer Canadian Tire Corp reported a 10 per cent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by strong sales of home products and sports gear. (Globe)
  • BlackBerry Ltd.’s stock jumped after it announced a partnership with Google Inc. to allow the search giant’s suite of mobile productivity tools to run on the smartphone maker’s device management system.
  • Encana Corp. is ready and willing to do more deals. Fresh off one of the busiest years for acquisitions and divestitures in its history, the Canadian oil and natural gas producer is seeing opportunities in the crude price collapse, Chief Executive Officer Doug Suttles said in an interview.

United States

  • U.S. stock-index futures rose, indicating equities will advance after closing near all-time highs.
  • Shares of Starbucks Corp. are outpacing the broader market amid a decline in global coffee prices spurred by the rain in Brazil.
  • Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $2.6 billion to settle probes into its creation and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities, as the U.S. Department of Justice holds another large Wall Street firm to account for the 2008 financial crisis.

International:

  • European stocks climbed, extending a seven-year high, as Bayer AG and British American Tobacco Plc rose after reporting earnings, while Allianz SE fell.
  • Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan plans to shrink Britain’s largest government-owned bank further after a 4 billion-pound restructuring charge sparked a full-year loss.
  • Italy’s government, seeking to reduce the second-biggest debt in the euro region, sold a stake in Enel SpA, the country’s largest utility, for 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion).
  • Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index heading for a five-month high, led by energy producers. Chinese shares climbed on speculation the government will do more to cushion the economic slowdown.
  • Samsung Electronics Co. will this year freeze the salaries of all its workers in South Korea as the Galaxy smartphone maker battles slowing sales and plunging earnings.

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