Day Traders Diary
6/13/13
U.S. equity futures trade with modest losses amid cautious overseas action. The S&P 500 futures are lower by 0.2%.Reviewing overnight developments:
Asian markets ended broadly lower. Japan's Nikkei fell 6.4%, China's Shanghai Composite tumbled 2.7%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 2.2%.
In regional economic data:
Japan continued to be a net seller of foreign bonds as the latest Foreign Bonds Buying report indicated a decline of JPY386.9 billion.
South Korea left its key interest rate unchanged at 2.50%, as expected.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand also elected to leave its interest rate unchanged at 2.50%, in line with expectations.
Australia's employment change surprised to the upside with a reading of 1,100 (-10,000 expected, 45,000 prior), which, in turn, helped the unemployment rate ease to 5.5% (5.6% expected, 5.6% prior).
Looking at news:
The Nikkei's 6.4% decline pushed the index back into bear market territory as it now sits nearly 22.0% below its May 22 high. The overnight slide occurred amid continued strengthening of the yen. Dollar/yen fell as low as 93.79 as the Asian session drew to its close before rebounding to its current level near 94.15.
The World Bank has lowered its 2013 global growth forecast to 2.2% and revised its expectations for China's 2013 GDP growth to 7.7% from 8.4%. In addition, the forecast for Japan was raised to 1.4% from 0.8%.
European indices trade with losses across the board. France's CAC is off by 0.7%, Britain's FTSE trades down 0.8%, and Germany's DAX holds a loss of 1.4%.
Regional economic news was limited:
Germany's Wholesale Price Index declined 0.4% (+0.3% expected, -0.2% previous).
Swiss PPI declined 0.3% month-over-month (+0.1% expected, +0.2% previous) while the year-over-year reading slipped 0.2% (+0.2% forecast, -0.1% prior).
In news:
The European Central Bank has released its Monthly Bulletin, in which the central bank singled out Italy for failing to control its deficits.
In U.S. corporate news:
Belo (BLC 13.61, +2.88) is jumping 26.8% after agreeing to be acquired by Gannet (GCI 22.76, +2.91) for $13.75 per share, representing a 28.0% premium to Belo's closing price from yesterday.
Safeway (SWY 28.93, +5.82) trades higher by 25.1% after announcing an agreement to sell its Canadian operations to Sobeys for CAD5.8 billion.
Weekly initial claims, May retail sales, export prices ex-agriculture, and import prices ex-oil will all be announced at 8:30 ET. The final economic data point of the day will come in the form of April business inventories. This report is set to cross at 10:00 ET.
All comments contained herein are for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. The firm does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information or make any warranties regarding results from it's usage.