April 10th, 2017
Daily Market Commentary
Economic News:
- Housing Starts in Canada were reported at 254K, above estimates.
- The Consumer Price Index in Greece was reportedly up 1.7% in year-over-year terms, above estimates.
- A Sentix survey of Investor Confidence in the Eurozone was reported at 23.9, above estimates.
Canada:
- Toronto’s mayor won’t rule out selling some of the city’s prime downtown real estate as he looks to make better use of assets amid an unprecedented property boom. The need for North America’s fourth-largest city to fund critical transit upgrades and housing improvements coincides with skyrocketing property prices in the region. Toronto’s real estate portfolio includes 6,976 buildings with 106.3 million square feet (9.9 million square meters), almost half of which is multifamily.
- The average price of farmland in Canada, the world’s largest canola grower and one of the biggest wheat exporters, rose more than expected in 2016 amid production gains and higher crop receipts. Farmland prices climbed 7.9 percent last year, Farm Credit Canada, a government-owned agricultural lender said Monday in a report.
United States:
- Members of Congress are back home for a two-week recess after one of the most bitterly divided and least productive starts in recent history. A new, urgent challenge is waiting for them when they return: finding a way to set aside their anger and mistrust long enough to keep the federal government open. Government funding expires on April 28, which will give Congress five days to unveil, debate and pass an enormous spending bill, or trigger a government shutdown.
- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. is exploring a sale of its women’s health business as the Israeli drugmaker seeks to reduce debt, according to people familiar with the matter. The unit, which makes fertility and menopause treatments as well as contraception, could fetch as much as $2 billion.
- The retail trends that are keeping U.S. shoppers away from malls are also putting a damper on deal-making. The number of mergers involving apparel, shoes and jewelry dropped 12 percent to 115 in the past year. And the transactions that are getting done are fetching the smallest premiums since the recession in 2008.
International:
- European stocks traded mostly sideways as equities in France gave up ground. While moves show demand for havens assets abating as financial markets attempt to shrug off Friday’s disappointing U.S. employment figures, a ratcheting up of geopolitical tensions and Europe’s looming test of populism look set to curtail optimism.
- France’s presidential election is becoming a four-way contest as far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon surges to catch Republican Francois Fillon, stoking uncertainty over the outcome less than two weeks before voting begins.
- Volkswagen AG is making progress settling U.S. legal claims from its emission-cheating scandal, but one challenge looms unresolved: What to do with the hundreds of thousands of diesel cars it is being forced to buy back? The German automaker agreed last year to buy back about 500,000 diesels that it rigged to pass U.S. emissions tests if it can’t figure out a way to fix them.
- Holders of U.S. Treasuries can breathe a sigh of relief as Japan’s spotlight turns to France. Japanese investors offloaded a record amount of French sovereign debt in February while their selling of U.S. bonds slowed, according to data from the finance ministry and central bank released Monday.
- Asian stocks were little changed as South Korean equities dropped amid concern that tension between the U.S. and North Korea will escalate, while a weaker yen buoyed Japanese shares.
*All sources from Bloomberg unless otherwise specified