January 14th, 2015

Daily Market Commentary

 

ECONOMIC NEWS

  • The Export Price Index in the U.S. was reportedly down 1.2% and down 3.2% in month-over-month and year-over-year terms, respectively.
  • Retail Sales in the U.S. were reportedly down 0.9% in month-over-month terms in December, below estimates of -0.1% growth.
  • Retail sales excluding autos were reported down 1%, below an estimate  of flat growth.
  • Industrial production in the Eurozone was reportedly down 0.4% in year-over-year terms, above estimates of a 0.8% decline.

Commodities:

  • Oil oversupply that sent prices to a five-year low will probably persist until at least the second half when demand is set to recover, according to Kuwait’s oil minister and the OPEC governor of the United Arab Emirates.
  • Gold fell from the highest in almost 12 weeks as commodities slumped and investors weighed the prospects for higher U.S. interest rates against the outlook for the global economy. Silver and palladium also slid.
  • Copper tumbled the most in almost six years as the metal followed oil lower amid a collapse in commodities.

Canada:

  • Canadian stocks fell, for a third day of declines, as raw-materials producers plunged with copper prices and crude tumbled to less than $45 a barrel.
  • A wave of cost-cutting in Canada’s oil patch is prompting bond investors to pick which companies will best withstand the collapse in crude prices.
  • Canada’s dollar weakened past C$1.20 per greenback for the first time since April 2009 on concern a continued slump in crude oil, the nation’s biggest export, will damp economic growth.
  • Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest oil company, said it will cut 1,000 jobs, lower its 2015 capital budget by about 13% and delay projects to weather collapsing prices.

United States

  • U.S. stock-index futures fell, indicating the Standard & Poor’s Index may drop for a fourth day, as a deepening commodities rout triggered a selloff in risk assets.
  • GoPro Inc. shares plummeted 12 percent, their steepest decline since August, after Apple Inc. was granted a patent for a remote-control camera system.
  • JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank, said fourth-quarter profit fell 6.6% as fixed-income trading revenue dropped 23% and legal costs were about twice as high as some analysts estimated.
  • Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc., said the company might become profitable by 2020 when annual sales reach 500,000 and added that business slowed in China on charging concerns.

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International:

  • European stocks fell from a five-week high as energy and mining shares followed commodity prices lower on global-growth concern.
  • Mario Draghi won a legal endorsement as an adviser to the European Union’s top court said a bond-buying program designed to help save the euro area may only require fine tuning to bring it in line with EU law.
  • Russia may unseal its $88 billion Reserve Fund and convert some of its foreign-currency holdings into rubles, the latest government effort to prop up an economy veering into its worst slump since 2009.
  • Japanese stocks fell for a second day as the yen traded at a four-week high against the dollar, buoyed by falling global risk sentiment on a continued slide in commodity prices as copper plunged.
  • China’s record crude imports last month brought it the closest ever to surpassing the U.S. as the Asian country boosts emergency stockpiles and America’s shale boom reduces the need for oil from overseas.
  • China Railway Signal & Communication Corp., China’s biggest provider of rail traffic control systems, plans to seek about $2 billion from an initial public offering in Hong Kong, said people with knowledge of the matter.
  • The sell-off in Chinese dollar bonds sparked by Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd.’s financial difficulties is prompting some analysts to call a buy.

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