August 18th, 2016
Daily Market Commentary
ECONOMIC NEWS
- Initial Jobless Claims in the US were quoted at 262K, lower than estimates.
- Continuing Jobless claims in the US were quoted at 2.175M, slightly higher than estimates.
Commodities:
- Oil held its advance after the longest run of gains in more than a year as U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles declined, paring supplies at their highest seasonal level in two decades. Brent rose above $50 a barrel for the first time since July.
- Gold held onto gains from the past three days as the dollar retreated after traders read the minutes from July’s Federal Reserve meeting as showing U.S. interest rates will stay low.
- Iron ore strayed well off-script in 2016 as a rally surprised bears. Michael Zhu, former global sales director at Vale SA, says the commodity will probably face a tough year in 2017 as supply keeps on expanding while China’s steelmakers struggle to sustain output at current levels.
Canada:
- Canadian stocks ended little changed after all but erasing earlier losses following Federal Reserve meeting minutes that signaled the U.S. central bank won’t rush to raise interest rates amid uneven economic growth.
- Aritzia LP, the Canadian women’s fashion retailer, filed for an initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Private equity backer Berkshire Partners LLC will sell shares in the IPO, as will Aritzia founder and Chief Executive Officer Brian Hill, the company said in a filing Wednesday.
United States:
- U.S. stock-index futures were little changed as investors assessed near-record equity levels and the likelihood of an interest rate increase this year.
- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley are among 16 banks being sued by funds in the U.S. for allegedly manipulating a key Australian interest rate benchmark to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit profits.
- Most on the 17-member Federal Open Market Committee responsible for setting U.S. interest rates in late-July “saw relatively low risk that a further gradual strengthening of the labor market would generate an unwanted increase in inflationary pressures,” according to minutes of that meeting published Wednesday in Washington.
International:
- European stocks climbed for the first time in five days, rebounding from a two-week low, on speculation that central banks will remain accommodative.
- Volkswagen AG’s cheating scandal threatened to further ensnare Europe’s biggest supplier of auto parts after U.S. lawyers claimed Robert Bosch GmbH began playing a key role in developing technology to hoodwink emissions tests as early as the late 1990s
- Nestle SA, the world’s biggest food company, forecast it will be easier to raise prices in the second half after deflation led to its weakest first-half sales growth in seven years.
- Asian stocks outside Japan neared a one-year high after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed officials aren’t in any hurry to raise interest rates. Shares in Tokyo slipped as the yen strengthened.
- Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Asia’s biggest international carrier, says it’s getting tougher to find premium fliers from Hong Kong.
- Lenovo Group Ltd. expects its loss-making smartphone business to turn a corner next fiscal year as it shifts toward higher-end devices and ramps up marketing in the U.S. and China. The world’s largest PC maker is counting on a revival of the Motorola smartphone business it bought for $2.8 billion to make up for a declining computer industry.
*All information is taken from Bloomberg, unless otherwise noted.