Day Traders Diary

2/19/14

U.S. equity futures hover near their pre-market lows amid cautious overseas action. The S&P 500 futures trade seven points below fair value.
Reviewing overnight developments:
Asian markets ended mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng +0.3%, China's Shanghai Composite +1.1%, and Japan's Nikkei -0.5%.
In economic data:
Japan's All Industries Activity Index slipped 0.1% month-over-month (0.2% consensus, 0.4% prior).
Australia's wage price index rose 0.7% quarter-over-quarter (0.6% consensus, 0.5% prior) while the year-over-year reading increased 2.6% (2.6% forecast, 2.7% consensus). Separately, MI Leading Index slipped 0.2% month-over-month (0.1% prior) and CB Leading Index increased 0.8% month-over-month (0.2% previous).
Among news of note:
After spending yesterday's session in a steady climb off its lows, the Japanese yen continued strengthening overnight, pressuring the dollar/yen pair below 102.00, where it currently trades.
Major European indices trade lower across the board. France's CAC -0.3%, Great Britain's FTSE -0.4%, and Germany's DAX -0.5%. Elsewhere, Spain's IBEX -0.6% and Italy's MIB -0.8%.
Participants received several economic data points:
Great Britain's claimant count fell 27,600 (-20,000 forecast, -27,700 prior) and the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.2% from 7.1% (7.1% expected). Separately, average earnings index + bonus increased 1.1% (1.0% consensus, 0.9% previous).
Spain's trade deficit expanded to EUR1.83 billion from EUR1.76 billion (deficit of EUR1.20 billion expected).
Swiss ZEW Expectations fell to 28.7 from 36.4 (40.0 expected).
In news:
European Central Bank member Ewald Nowoty said the ECB is nearing an agreement to terminate sterilizing bond purchases completed under the Securities Markets Program.
In U.S. corporate news:

Herbalife (HLF 70.00, +1.07): +1.6% after beating on revenue and guiding first quarter results below consensus.
Lumber Liquidators (LL 99.00, +3.40): +3.6% after beating on earnings and revenue.
Nabors Industries (NBR 1.05, +0.39): +2.1% following its revenue beat.
Panera Bread (PNRA 170.11, -3.07): -1.8% after beating earnings estimates by two cents and guiding first quarter earnings below consensus.
Sunedison (SUNE 15.00, -0.18): -1.2% after missing revenue estimates.
Zale (ZLC 20.76, +5.85): +39.2% after announcing it will be acquired by Signet Jewelers (SIG 89.00, +9.74) for $21 per share, representing a 41.0% premium to Tuesday's closing price.
The weekly MBA Mortgage Index fell 4.1% to follow last week's decrease of 2.0%.

January Housing Starts, Building Permits, and PPI will all be reported at 8:30 ET while the latest minutes from the January FOMC meeting will cross the wires at 14:00 ET.

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