March 2nd, 2017
Daily Market Commentary
Economic News:
- Canadian annualized GDP was quoted at 2.6% in quarter-over-quarter terms, above estimates.
- Initial Jobless Claims in the US were quoted at 223K, below estimates.
- The European Union Unemployment Rate held steady at 9.6%
- The Consumer Price Index in the EU rose 0.7% and 3.5% in month-over-month and year-over-year terms, respectively, both above estimates.
Canada:
- Toronto-Dominion Bank said fiscal first-quarter profit rose 14 percent, led by capital markets and U.S. banking. The lender raised its quarterly dividend 9.1 percent to 60 cents a share.
- Fortis Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement with an institutional investor in the United States to issue and sell 12,195,122 common shares of Fortis at a price of C$41.00 per share, for gross proceeds of approximately C$500,000,000.
United States:
- As the Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassed 21,000 for the first time and the CBOE Volatility Index posted its biggest drop in two weeks, the most-traded note profiting from equity swings saw its largest withdrawals in almost a year.
- By most real indicators, the U.S. economy is not too hot or cold, yet financial markets are betting that a core group of Federal Reserve officials who set interest rates are suddenly raring to go. They could have those convictions confirmed or tempered when Fed Chair Janet Yellen gives an economic outlook speech in Chicago on Friday.
- Snap Inc., maker of the disappearing photo app dependent upon the fickle favor of the millennial demographic, is going public at a valuation at least twice as expensive as Facebook Inc., and four times more costly than Twitter Inc.
International:
- European stocks were little changed as traders parsed earnings reports and assessed the previous session’s biggest surge since the U.S. election in November. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added less than 0.1 percent at 8:30 a.m. in London, foll
- owing a rally led by banks and miners as rising bets for a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase stoked optimism about global growth.
- Anheuser-Busch InBev NV Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito will miss out on a bonus for the first time since 2008 after earnings at the Budweiser maker missed analysts’ estimates for a seventh straight quarter.
- Hong Kong shares fell for the fifth time in six days as the prospect of higher borrowing costs dragged developers lower and a flood of mainland inflows dried up.
- Japan’s Topix index sprang to a 14-month high as a weaker yen and record U.S. stocks affirmed bullish sentiment for exporters. Electronics makers and banks helped propel the Topix to a close unseen since Dec. 17, 2015, after Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard painted a positive picture of economies in the U.S. and abroad that supported the case for a rate hike “soon.”
*All sources from Bloomberg unless otherwise specified