July 9th 2014

Daily Market Commentary

 

ECONOMIC NEWS

  • Housing Starts in Canada were reported at 198.2K, above estimates of 189K.
  • MBA Mortgage Applications in the U.S. were reportedly up 1.9%.
  • The Consumer Price Index in China was reportedly down 0.1% and up 2.3% in month-over-month and year-over-year terms, respectively.

Commodities:

  • Brent crude traded at a one-month low amid signs Libyan oil exports will rebound. West Texas Intermediate was near the lowest closing price in more than a month before oil inventory data.
  • Gold rose in London as a weaker dollar and equities increased demand for a protection of wealth. Palladium traded near a 13-year high after its longest run of gains in more than six years.
  • Aluminium reached a one-year high in London after Alcoa Inc. said a shortage of the metal will be larger than previously forecast. Zinc traded near a 35-month high as inventories continued to shrink.

Canada:

  • Canada is adding two more provinces to its proposed national securities regulator as the federal government inches forward with its plan to unify a system where each region has its own rules. Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have agreed to join the federal proposal to harmonize rules for the world’s sixth-largest stock market.
  • The new CEO of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest fertilizer producer by market value, said the company has no plans to follow a competitor’s strategy of cutting prices for its namesake to try to add to market share.
  • Investor appetite in the high-yield market reached a limit after Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. of Canada pulled a proposed $325 million bond due to lack of demand from U.S. and Chinese investors.

United States:

  • U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, after equities declined for a second day, as investors awaited minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting and companies’ earnings reports.
  • Wells Fargo & Co., the world’s most valuable bank, is at risk of ending a 17-quarter streak of rising per-share profits as an industrywide revenue slump overcomes one-time gains and cost cuts that buttressed earnings.
  • Citigroup Inc. may reach an agreement with federal prosecutors as early as next week to resolve a probe into sales of mortgage-backed bonds before the 2008 financial crisis. The nation’s third-biggest bank by assets would pay at least $4 billion under an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.

International:

  • European stocks fell for a fourth day as investors awaited minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting.
  • Asian stocks fell for a second day, with the regional benchmark gauge on course for its largest decline in two months, after equity valuations touched the highest this year and China inflation data missed estimates.
  • China’s factory-gate prices fell in June at the slowest pace in more than two years, adding to signs of stabilization in the world’s second-largest economy.
  • China said it can’t stop intervention in the yuan because economic growth is too weak and capital flows aren’t steady enough to warrant changes.