April 26th, 2016
Daily Market Commentary
ECONOMIC NEWS:
- Durable Goods orders in the US were up 0.8% in March, below estimates of 1.8% growth. Excluding transportation, the figure was down 0.2%.
- The Redbook index, which measures same-store sales growth of US general merchandising companies, was down 3.1% and up 0.8% in month-over-month and year-over-year terms, in April, respectively.
- The S&P Case Shiller home indices were up 5.5% in year-over-year terms in February.
Commodities:
- Oil traded near $43 a barrel amid signs that, while global markets remain oversupplied, the surplus is gradually diminishing.
- Gold’s 16 percent rally in 2016 comes after the Federal Reserve scaled back on the number of times it is likely to raise borrowing costs this year. Futures markets are seeing zero probability for a rate increase at Wednesday’s meeting and only a 20 percent chance of a move in June.
- Copper fell for a second day as all industrial metals sank and mining stocks dropped to a weekly low on fears that gains earlier this month aren’t supported by increasing demand.
Canada:
- Teck Resources Ltd. reported first-quarter results that beat analysts’ estimates as Canada’s largest diversified miner cut costs to offset the impact of lower commodity prices.
- Canadian National Railway Co., the country’s largest railroad, lowered its annual profit target for the first time in eight years amid weaker-than-expected demand for commodities from coal to crude oil.
- Husky Energy Inc., which posted a record loss last year amid the worst oil market downturn in decades, raised C$1.7 billion ($1.3 billion) for some of its Canadian pipelines by keeping them in the family. The family is that of Li Ka-Shing, Hong Kong’s richest man, who controls Husky. On Monday, Li got a couple of his other units — Power Assets Holdings Ltd. and Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. — to buy 65 percent in the Canadian company’s midstream operations.
United States:
- U.S. stock-index futures rose, indicating equities will rebound, as investors await further financial reports and this week’s Federal Reserve policy update for signs of the health of the world’s biggest economy.
- T-Mobile US Inc. reported profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates as the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier posted a seventh straight quarter of adding more than 1 million new monthly users with features like free video streaming and mobile data rollover.
International:
- European stocks climbed for the first time in four days as BP Plc and Standard Chartered Plc rose after the companies reported earnings.
- The pound strengthened against all of its major counterparts on speculation that the U.K. is less likely to leave the European Union.
- Deutsche Lufthansa AG scrapped 852 flights this week because of a strike by German airport workers on Wednesday that will hobble operations in Frankfurt and Munich.
- Asian stocks fell for a third day as raw-material shares declined and Tokyo equities slumped before central bank meetings in the U.S. and Japan this week.
- Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said he expects the value of Saudi Arabian Oil Co. to exceed $2 trillion as the kingdom prepares to sell part of the company in what could be the world’s largest initial public offering.
- Toshiba Corp. posted a wider-than-forecast operating loss after the troubled electronics conglomerate wrote down the value of its Westinghouse power unit.
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s finance affiliate has raised a record $4.5 billion from a consortium of powerful state-backed investors to bankroll its global expansion.
- Toyota Motor Corp.’s global sales declined in the first quarter and fell behind Volkswagen AG’s, as a series of production disruptions threaten the Japanese automaker’s four-year reign atop auto industry sales charts.
- Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said it has improperly tested the fuel economy of its cars for the past quarter century, deepening a crisis that’s already wiped out half its market value.
*All information is taken from Bloomberg, unless otherwise noted.