May 12, 2014

Economic News

  • The M2 Money Supply in China was reportedly up 13.2% in year-over-year terms.
  • An Eco Watchers survey of the current economic environment in Japan was reported at 41.6, below estimates of 45.2.
  • Bank lending in Japan was reportedly up 2.1% in year-over-year terms.

 

Commodities

  • Brent rose for the first time in three days on concern the Ukraine crisis may disrupt oil supplies from Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter. West Texas Intermediate was steady after hedge funds cut wagers.
  • Gold traded above a one-week low in London as investors weighed the crisis over Ukraine against a stronger dollar.
  • Nickel rose for a fifth session in London to the highest price since 2012 on speculation the metal will be in shorter supply as activity remains suspended at Vale SA’s plant in New Caledonia.

 

Company News

 

Canada:

  • The S&P/TSX Composite Index, the main measure of the Toronto Stock Exchange, has outperformed every other major stock index this year so far. It was up 7.69% since the start of 2014 as of Friday afternoon.
  • Silver Wheaton said first-quarter earnings fell 4% to $79.8 million, hurt in part by a 31% decline in its average realized silver equivalent price. Revenue fell 20%.

United States:

  • U.S. stock-index futures climbed after equities slipped as the Nasdaq Composite Index fell the most in a month last week.
  • Chrysler Group LLC lost $690 million in the first quarter when it bought the shares held by a union retiree medical trust, paving the way for integration of the companies.
  • Allergan Inc. rejected Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s unsolicited takeover proposal, saying the offer “substantially undervalues’ the maker of the Botox wrinkle treatment.

International:

  • European stocks rose, as mining companies advanced, and Sky Deutschland AG rallied after British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc said it’s in talks to buy the company.
  • Rupert Murdoch is pursuing a deal that would transform British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc into a European satellite-TV giant while also leaving his U.S.-based 21st Century Fox Inc. focused on entertainment programming.
  • Job vacancies at London’s financial-services companies climbed 67 percent last month as firms sought employees to manage increasing compliance demands from regulators, a recruitment survey showed.
  • Borrowing costs for companies fell to a record in Europe as policy makers prepare more stimulus measures to prevent stagnant prices from derailing the economic recovery.
  • Asian stocks outside Japan rose as Chinese shares surged on speculation the government will take steps to bolster equities.
  • Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s second-biggest carmaker, forecast profit that missed analysts’ estimates, as intensifying competition drives up incentive spending in the U.S.
  • Samsung Group is investing at least $2 billion in biopharmaceuticals, including the growing segment of biosimilars, which are cheaper versions of brand-name biotechnology drugs that have lost patent protection.
  • China’s broadest measure of new credit fell last month as authorities extended their campaign to tame a debt boom even as construction and manufacturing data point to risks that the economy’s slowdown will worsen.