July 18th, 2016

Daily Market Commentary

 

ECONOMIC NEWS

  • Foreign investments in Canadian securities were reported at $14.73B in May, below estimates.

 

Commodities:

  • Brent crude traded little changed following a failed coup in Turkey as shipments continued through the vital conduit for oil from Russia and Iraq to the Mediterranean Sea.
  • Gold declined with other precious metals as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reasserted control after Friday’s failed military coup, arresting thousands of soldiers.
  • Copper fell with most industrial metals amid speculation that credit conditions in China, the biggest user, will curb demand in the second half of the year. Nickel held last week’s advance as the Philippines shuttered more mines as part of as environmental crackdown.

Canada:

  • With bond yields tumbling below zero worldwide, investors hungry for returns are piling into Canadian exchange-traded funds focused on the country’s long-term debt at a record pace. Flows into ETFs focused on long-term Canadian bonds have increased almost 26 percent to $477 million this year.
  • The Canadian government is focused on ratifying a trade agreement with the European Union despite Brexit, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said, downplaying a report the government has begun talks for a bilateral trade deal with the U.K.

United States:

  • U.S. index futures edged higher, displaying resilience after a failed coup in Turkey, as investors also awaited earnings reports to gauge corporate health. Asian stocks outside Japan rose toward the highest level since October as energy and financial companies advanced.
  • Bank of America Corp., the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, said second-quarter profit fell 21 percent as the firm took an accounting charge and posted a decline in wealth-management revenue. Net income dropped to $4.23 billion, or 36 cents a share, from $5.13 billion, or 43 cents, a year earlier.
  • Traders are pricing in higher chances that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates some time this year after U.S. economic reports including retail sales and industrial production signaled improving growth. They saw 44 percent probability the Fed will raise rates by yearend as of Friday, up from 15 percent after the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union.

International:

  • European equities pared their gains as declines in miners offset the surge in ARM Holdings Plc after a deal announcement.
  • Total SA’s specialty chemicals division Atotech has attracted interest from companies including China’s Sinochem Group and buyout firms such as CVC Capital Partners, people familiar with the matter said. A sale could value the business, which supplies electroplating and surface treatments used by the electronics industry, at as much as 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion).
  • Opera Software ASA fell as much as 17 percent after its sale to a Chinese group failed to get government approval and was canceled, and the company instead agreed to sell its web-browser business for $600 million.
  • SoftBank Group Corp. agreed to buy ARM Holdings Plc for 24.3 billion pounds ($32 billion), securing a slice of virtually every mobile computing gadget on the planet and future connected devices in the home.

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