August 31st, 2015

Daily Market Commentary

 

ECONOMIC NEWS

  • The Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index was reported at 54.4, below estimates of 54.7.
  • The Consumer Price Index in the Eurozone was up 0.2% in year-over-year terms, above estimates of 0.1%.
  • The Consumer Price Index core for the Eurozone was up 1% in year-over-year terms, in line with estimates.
  • GDP in Portugal was up 0.4% and 1.5% in quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year terms, respectively.

Commodities:

  • Gold bulls piled into the metal in hopes that the turmoil sweeping financial markets would finally help revive prices. They were wrong.
  • Oil headed for a third monthly decline as U.S. drillers showed no signs of letting up even as a supply glut persists.

Canada:

  • Canadian oil sands cites fire at Syncrude Mildred Lake Upgrader. No injuries associated with event, no environmental impact, fire extinguished, co. says.
  • Athabasca Oil receives payment of C$152.6m from Brion Energy relating to sale of 40% stake in Dover oil sands project to Brion, which closed Aug. 29, 2014.
  • Chevron crews preparing to restart Burnaby refinery in British Columbia in Canada after external power failure, co. says in post on website.

United States:

  • U.S. stock-index futures fell in early trading with the turmoil seen in August set to continue on the final day of the month.
  • The Obama administration is drafting an escalating series of actions, including economic sanctions and curbs on doing business in the U.S., to punish China and other nations that persist in hacking its corporate computer networks, according to two administration officials with knowledge of the planning.

International:

  • European stocks were little changed, paring earlier declines, as investors weighed Federal Reserve comments for clues on the trajectory of interest rates, while confidence wanes in China’s ability to prop up the market.
  • OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, said profit fell 22 percent in the second quarter after crude prices slumped by almost half from a year earlier.
  • Allianz SE’s infrastructure arm is weighing bids for the Nice and London City airports as Europe’s biggest insurer seeks new investments, according to people familiar with the matter.
  • Asian stocks extended the biggest monthly drop in three years as investors weighed comments from a weekend meeting of monetary policy makers, with Chinese shares posting their steepest two-month tumble since 2008.
  • China’s brokerages tumbled after four Citic Securities Co. executives were detained and people familiar with the matter said the industry was told to contribute another 100 billion yuan ($15.7 billion) to a stock market rescue fund.
  • Toshiba Corp. delayed its fiscal 2014 earnings release, saying further investigation of accounting issues at its U.S. unit caused it to miss the deadline that regulators had set three months ago.

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