Day Traders Diary
12/20/13
U.S. equity futures hold modest gains amid cautious overseas action. The S&P 500 futures trade less than one point above fair value.Looking at overnight developments:
Asian markets ended mixed. Japan's Nikkei +0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng -0.3%, and China's Shanghai Composite -2.0%.
Economic data was limited:
The Bank of Japan held its key interest rate unchanged at 0-0.10%, as expected.
New Zealand's visitor arrivals increased 2.8% month-over-month (-1.9% prior) while credit card spending rose 6.9% year-over-year (3.3% last).
In news:
In China, money market rates were on the rise once again with the one-week Shanghai Interbank Rate (SHIBOR) posting the largest increase. The rate jumped more than 118 basis points to 7.654%.
Major European indices are little changed. France's CAC -0.1%, Great Britain's FTSE +0.1%, and Germany's DAX +0.4%. Elsewhere, Italy's MIB +0.4% and Spain's IBEX -0.3%.
Investors received several economic data points:
Germany's GfK Consumer Climate ticked up to 7.6 from 7.4 (7.4 expected) while PPI ticked down 0.1% month-over-month, as expected. In addition, the annualized PPI pointed to a decrease of 0.8%, in-line with expectations.
Great Britain's GDP rose 0.8% quarter-over-quarter (0.8% expected, 0.8% prior) while the year-over-year reading pointed to growth of 1.9% (1.5% consensus, 1.5% last). Separately, the current account deficit widened to GBP20.70 billion from GBP6.20 billion (-GBP13.9 billion expected) and business investment increased 2.0% quarter-over-quarter (1.6% consensus, 1.4% prior). Also of note, the Index of Services rose 0.8% (0.4% expected, 0.8% last) and public sector net borrowing came in at GBP14.80 billion (GBP13.40 billion consensus, GBP7.40 billion prior).
Italy's industrial new orders fell 2.5% month-over-month (1.1% expected, 1.7% prior) while the year-over-year reading increased 1.2% (7.3% last). Retail sales ticked down 0.1% month-over-month (0.2% expected, -0.3% prior) while the year-over-year reading fell 1.6% (-2.8% last).
French Business Survey improved to 100 from 98 (99 expected).
Among news of note:
Last evening, Spanish police raided the main offices of Mariano Rajoy's People's Party as part of an investigation into alleged party-wide graft. Spanish debt is on the defensive with the benchmark 10-yr yield higher by four basis points at 4.16%.
The Italian government is currently undertaking a confidence vote over the 2014 budget law. The vote is also being seen as a test of support for Prime Minister Enrico Letta. Italian yields are on their highs with the 10-yr yield up four basis points at 4.12%.
In U.S. corporate news:
BlackBerry (BBRY 5.90, -0.35): -5.6% after the company reported disappointing quarterly results.
Carnival (CCL 39.41, +1.36): +3.6% after receiving upgrades from Credit Suisse and UBS.
Finish Line (FINL 28.30, +2.16): +8.3% following its bottom-line beat on above-consensus revenue.
Nike (NKE 78.30, +0.04): +0.1% after the company beat earnings estimates by one cent.
Red Hat (RHT 55.80, +6.80): +13.9% after UBS upgraded the stock to 'Buy' from 'Neutral.'
Walgreens (WAG 58.00, +1.06): +1.9% after reporting results in-line with its December 4th preannouncement.
Today's economic data will be limited to the third estimate of third quarter GDP, which will be released at 8:30 ET.
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