March 31st, 2017
Daily Market Commentary
Economic News:
- Canadian GDP was quoted at 0.6% in month-over-month in January, above estimates.
- Personal Income in the US was up 0.4% in month-over-month terms, in line with estimates.
- The Consumer Price Index in the Eurozone was reportedly up 1.5% in year-over-year terms, below estimates.
- GDP in the UK was reportedly up 1.9% in year-over-year terms, slightly below estimates.
- The German Unemployment Rate was quoted at 5.8%, below estimates.
Canada:
- Canadian stocks closed lower as investors reacted negatively to a big deal in the oil patch, offsetting crude prices that rose above $50 a barrel for the first time in more than three weeks.
- Ford Motor Co. agreed to hire 400 employees from BlackBerry Ltd. to help develop wireless technology at the automaker, deepening an ongoing partnership between the two companies involving in-car connectivity.
United States:
- Global stocks were poised to end a blockbuster quarter with a whimper, with investors seeing little reason to take shares higher amid political and economic uncertainty in the coming quarter. The rand tumbled after South Africa’s finance minister was fired.
- Danone agreed to sell the Stonyfield organic yogurt brand to win approval from U.S. antitrust authorities for its $10 billion acquisition of soy-milk maker WhiteWave Foods Co.
International:
- European stocks fell, with miners leading declines, as investors assessed a rally that pushed equities to their highest level in almost 16 months. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.2 percent at 8:27 a.m. in London, trimming its third quarterly advance. The benchmark is also poised to clock its best March performance since 2010, as easing concern over a win for France’s anti-euro candidate in the country’s Coming election boosted lenders.
- Credit Suisse Group AG said its offices in London, Paris and Amsterdam were searched by authorities in connection with client tax matters. Credit Suisse is cooperating with the authorities, the bank said in a statement Friday from Zurich. The bank said it has “implemented Dutch and French voluntary tax disclosure programs and exited non-compliant clients,” and has applied a withholding tax agreement with the U.K. since 2013.
- Asian stocks fell as investors took profit amid the strongest quarter for the region’s equity markets in five years. The Topix erased gains for 2017 on the last trading day of Japan’s fiscal year.
- Bank of China Ltd., the nation’s fourth-largest lender by assets, reported its first profit decline in more than a decade as interest margins contracted and charges against bad loans surged. Net income dropped to 164.6 billion yuan ($23.9 billion) from 170.8 billion yuan in 2015, the company said in a Hong Kong exchange filing on Friday.
*All sources from Bloomberg unless otherwise specified