Day Traders Diary

12/3/13

U.S. equity futures hover near their lows amid cautious overseas action. The S&P 500 futures trade lower by 0.3%.

Reviewing overnight developments:

Asian markets ended mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng -0.5%, Japan's Nikkei +0.6%, and China's Shanghai Composite +0.7%.
Investors received a fair share of data:
Japan's monetary base rose 52.5% year-over-year (47.2% expected, 45.8% prior) and average cash earnings ticked up 0.1% year-over-year (-0.2% last).
China's Non-Manufacturing PMI slipped to 56.0 from 56.3.
The Reserve Bank of Australia left its key interest rate unchanged at 2.50%, as expected. Also of note, third quarter current account deficit widened to AUD12.70 billion from AUD12.10 billion (AUD11.60 billion expected) and retail sales rose 0.5% month-over-month (0.4% forecast, 0.9% previous).
In news:
The Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to maintain its current policy course was coupled with a statement that was very similar to remarks made in November. The central bank views the Australian dollar as 'still uncomfortably high' even though AUDUSD has slid from 0.9530 to 0.9120 since early November.
Major European indices trade broadly lower. Great Britain's FTSE -0.8%, Germany's DAX -1.1%, and France's CAC -1.8%. Elsewhere, Italy's MIB -1.1% and Spain's IBEX -1.1%.
Economic data was limited:
Eurozone PPI fell 0.5% month-over-month (-0.2% forecast, 0.2% prior) while the year-over-year reading decreased 1.4% (-1.0% expected, -0.9% last).
Great Britain's construction PMI jumped to 62.6 from 59.4 (59.0 consensus).
Spain's unemployment claims decreased 2,500 after increasing by 87,000 last month (+44,300 expected).
Norway's core retail sales fell 1.0% month-over-month (0.2% expected, 0.7% prior).
Among news of note:
European Commissioner Olli Rehn said that he is skeptical of the impact of Italy's privatization plans. Mr. Rehn also mentioned that Italy had not respected its debt cut objectives.
In U.S. corporate news:

Apple (AAPL 556.48, +5.25): +1.0% amid reports China Mobile (CHL 53.62, 0.00) has begun accepting iPhone pre-orders.
Pfizer (PFE 31.50, -0.33): -1.0% after Goldman Sachs removed the stock from its 'Conviction Buy' list.
Yum! Brands (YUM 76.28, -1.43): -1.8% after the company reaffirmed its full-year 2013 earnings forecast and reported a 1.0% increase in November same-store sales in China.

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