September 9th, 2016

Daily Market Commentary

 

ECONOMIC NEWS

  • The unemployment rate in Canada was reported up at 7%, up from 6.9%.
  • The Baker Hughes Rig Count was listed at 414, up from 407.

Commodities:

  • Oil trimmed its weekly gain after the biggest U.S. stockpile slump in 17 years was seen as a one-off caused by a tropical storm that disrupted imports and offshore production.
  • Gold held a drop after the European Central Bank softened the need for more economic stimulus and U.S. filings for unemployment benefits unexpectedly declined.
  • The surprise surge in coal prices should provide an unexpected profit boost for the world’s biggest mining companies as they navigate a commodity downturn that sapped earnings. Gains for coking coal, used with iron ore to make steel, accelerated in recent weeks and benchmark prices from top producer Australia jumped 9.5 percent on Thursday, the most since at least 2013.

Canada:

  • Energy producers dragged Canadian shares to a slight gain after a rally in crude oil sent the group surging by the most since June.
  • Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil and natural gas producer, is planning a sale of C$1 billion ($773 million) of medium-term notes to repay existing short-term debt.

United States:

  • US. index futures edged lower, with the S&P 500 Index heading for a ninth week of little movement. American shares slipped from near-record levels Thursday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi downplayed the need for more stimulus measures to bolster growth.
  • Amazon Inc. is pursuing video rights to a wide range of sports, including the French Open tennis championship and professional rugby, as the company looks for ways to draw new customers to its online TV service, people with knowledge of the matter said.
  • SpaceX’s billionaire founder Elon Musk called the Falcon 9explosion its most perplexing failure in 14 years, deepening the mystery surrounding the loss of the satellite-bearing rocket on its launchpad last week.

International:

  • European shares posted their first back-to-back losses since mid-August as investors continued to pull money from the region’s equity funds amid concern over the economic recovery.
  • Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. were told by the European Commission to provide missing data about their proposed merger, threatening to delay the regulator’s probe into their plans to create the world’s biggest chemical company.
  • Bayer AG is exploring the sale of its dermatology business, according to people familiar with the matter, as the German drug-maker gets rid of peripheral enterprises and pursues the takeover of crop chemicals rival Monsanto Co. The German company is working with JPMorgan Chase & Co. on the sale, which could fetch more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).
  • Asian stocks fell as investors weighed the outlook for monetary policy in the U.S. and Japan after the European Central Bank restrained the need for more economic stimulus. South Korean shares dropped after a nuclear weapons test in North Korea.
  • SoftBank Group Corp. raised 471 billion yen ($4.6 billion) in its biggest yen bond sale on record. The offering comes after the Japanese wireless carrier completed this week its acquisition of British semiconductor designer ARM Holdings Plc for about $32 billion.

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