July 3rd 2014

Daily Market Commentary

 

ECONOMIC NEWS

  • Great-West Lifeco Inc., one of Canada’s cheapest stocks, is hunting for more acquisitions to expand its money-management business in the U.S. and Europe. Great-West, Canada’s second-biggest insurer with more than C$806 billion ($756 billion) in assets under administration, wants to increase its footprint in a U.S. market where retirement assets topped $23 trillion as of March 31.
  • ShawCor said it has received a contract worth about $50 million from Marubeni Sumitomo Consortium for pipeline coating services.

Commodities:

  • West Texas Intermediate fell for a sixth day, marking its longest retreat in more than two years as easing supply concerns in Iraq and Libya offset the impact of rising U.S. demand before the Fourth of July holiday. Brent also declined.
  • Gold declined from a three-month high as investors awaited U.S. employment data that may show the economy is strengthening. Platinum fell from the highest price in almost 10 months.
  • Nickel advanced to the highest level in more than a month after an increase in U.S. employment fuelled optimism that an economic recovery will boost demand.

Canada:

  • Great-West Lifeco Inc., one of Canada’s cheapest stocks, is hunting for more acquisitions to expand its money-management business in the U.S. and Europe. Great-West, Canada’s second-biggest insurer with more than C$806 billion ($756 billion) in assets under administration, wants to increase its footprint in a U.S. market where retirement assets topped $23 trillion as of March 31.
  • ShawCor said it has received a contract worth about $50 million from Marubeni Sumitomo Consortium for pipeline coating services.

United States:

  • U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, after benchmark equity gauges extended records yesterday, as investors awaited data that may show employers added more than 200,000 jobs for a fifth month.
  • Qualcomm Inc., the world’s largest maker of chips for mobile phones, said it bought Wilocity Ltd. in an effort to speed up introduction of new Wi-Fi products. Wilocity’s fast gigabit wireless-data capabilities will be included in sample products being shipped to customers, Qualcomm said yesterday in a statement.
  • Tesla Motors Inc., which has battled U.S. auto dealer groups over its direct sales of electric cars through company-owned stores, was approved by lawmakers in Pennsylvania to expand retail operations there.
  • PetSmart Inc. shares surged after hedge fund Jana Partners LLC disclosed a stake in the pet-care company and urged it to undertake a strategic review that might include a potential sale.

International:

  • European stocks gained for a third day as investors awaited the outcome of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting and a report on American jobs.
  • ECB President Mario Draghi reiterated that he’ll keep interest rates low as officials try to revive the region’s economy with a new round of emergency measures.
  • The benchmark index of Asian stocks fell from a six-year high as private data showed U.S. companies added more workers than estimated before a government payrolls report today.