Day Traders Diary

03/20/14

U.S. equity futures hold modest losses amid cautious action overseas. The S&P 500 futures trade five point below fair value.
Reviewing overnight developments:
Asian markets ended lower across the board. China's Shanghai Composite -1.4%, Japan's Nikkei -1.7%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng -1.8%.
Economic data was limited:
New Zealand's GDP rose 0.9% quarter-over-quarter, as expected (prior 1.2%)
Japan's Foreign Bonds Buying report pointed to net purchases in the amount of JPY143.10 billion (prior sales of JPY617.90 billion).
Hong Kong's CPI rose 3.9% year-over-year (last 4.6%).
In news:
China's State Council announced plans to speed up construction projects in order to stabilize economic growth in the immediate term. Also of note, the yuan continued weakening against the dollar with the dollar/yuan exchange rate climbing above 6.2275.
Major European indices trade broadly lower. France's CAC -0.8%, Germany's DAX -0.8%, and Great Britain's FTSE -1.0%. Elsewhere, Italy's MIB -0.4% and Spain's IBEX -0.5%.
Participants received just a few data points:
Germany's PPI was unchanged month-over-month (expected 0.1%, prior -0.1%) while the year-over-year reading fell 0.9%, as expected (previous -1.1%).
Great Britain's CBI Industrial Trends Orders improved to 6 from 3 (expected 5).
The Swiss National Bank held its key interest rate at 0.00%, as expected. Separately, the trade surplus expanded to CHF2.62 billion from CHF2.55 billion (consensus CHF2.24 billion).
Among news of note:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke in front of parliament, saying Ukraine will be the main focus of today's European leader summit.
In U.S. corporate news:

ConAgra Foods (CAG 30.00, +0.41): +1.4% after beating the Capital IQ consensus earnings estimate by two cents on in-line revenue. In addition, the company reaffirmed its longer-term targets.
Jabil Circuit (JBL 18.44, +0.18): +1.0% despite missing on earnings and issuing mixed guidance. The company said it expects below-consensus third quarter earnings while the midpoint for fiscal-year 2015 earnings was set above estimates.
Lennar (LEN 42.20, +0.86): +2.1% after beating revenue estimates.
Weekly initial claims will be released at 8:30 ET while February Existing Home Sales, February Leading Indicators, and the March Philadelphia Fed survey will cross the wires at 10:00 ET.

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