March 9th, 2017

Daily Market Commentary

 

 

 

Economic News:

  • The New Housing Price Index in Canada was reportedly up 0.1% and 3.1% in month-over-month and year-over-year terms, respectively.
  • Initial Jobless Claims in the US were quoted at 243K, above estimates.
  • The ECB kept their key interest rates and deposit rates steady at 0% and -0.4%, respectively.
  • The Unemployment Rate in Greece was quoted at 23.1%.
  • The Swiss Unemployment rate was quoted at 3.3%.

Canada:

  • Canadian stocks declined the most in eight days as oil slumped more than 5 percent to its lowest level of the year, dragging down energy shares. Nine of the 11 major industries on the S&P/TSX Composite Index fell, with real estate and telecommunication stocks dropping more than 0.7 percent.
  • President Donald Trump’s timetable to negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement threatens to slip into an election year for Mexico, which could feel the economic impact of the uncertainty especially if the agreement starts disintegrating. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Wednesday that the trade talks will probably begin in the latter part of 2017 and shouldn’t last much longer than a year.
  • Royal Dutch Shell Plc will sell almost all of its production assets in Canada’s oil sands in a $7.25 billion deal that cuts debt and reduces involvement in one of the most environmentally damaging forms of fossil-fuel extraction.

United States:

  • U.S. equities reversed early gains to end lower Wednesday after ADP data showed companies added the most workers in almost three years to payrolls last month and financial stocks pared an early advance.
  • The pace of U.S. solar deployments will slow this year after installations hit a record in 2016 as developers rushed to complete large-scale power plants to qualify for a federal tax credit. The industry will add about 13.2 gigawatts this year, down about 10 percent from 2016.

International:

  • European stocks dropped for the fifth time in six days as investors prepared to scrutinize comments by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi for clues about the future of monetary stimulus.
  • Exxon Mobil Corp. said it will buy a 25 percent stake in a project off Mozambique from Italy’s Eni SpA for about $2.8 billion as the U.S. oil giant expands in natural gas. Eni will continue to lead the Coral floating liquefied natural gas project and all upstream operations in Area 4 while ExxonMobil will lead the construction and operation of gas liquefaction facilities onshore, Exxon said in a statement Thursday.
  • BMW AG reported its weakest profitability since 2010, capping a negative year for Chief Executive Officer Harald Krueger after losing the luxury-car crown to arch-rival Mercedes-Benz. Amid higher spending on electric-car and autonomous-driving technologies, BMW’s automotive profit margin narrowed to 8.9 percent in 2016 from 9.2 percent a year earlier.
  • Chinese stocks traded in Hong Kong fell the most this year, with oil companies sliding on a tumble in crude prices and banks retreating amid concern of curbs on the mainland.
  • China’s central bank plans to apply a stricter method for assessing banks’ capital as part of efforts to contain financial-sector risks, people with knowledge of the matter said. Under the proposed change to the so-called Macro Prudential Assessment framework, the People’s Bank of China will remove an intermediary category in its evaluation of banks’ capital adequacy.
  • China’s biggest SUV maker is reconsidering its plan to build an auto plant in Mexico that would have made its best-selling vehicles for the U.S. market, joining a growing list of global automakers reviewing investment plans after tax threats by President Donald Trump.

 

*All sources from Bloomberg unless otherwise specified